


The M.A.S.T. project

by Starysky205



Series: MAST [1]
Category: Original Work, The MAST project - Skyler Ghesh
Genre: Agender Character, Aliens, Demisexual Character, Female Character of Color, Gay Character, It gets better I promise, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Pansexual Character, Please give it a try, Sci-Fi, Trans Male Character, a lot less pinning than you'd think, bc of course it does, bear with me through the first few chapters, i spent a year making it, it also gets gayer, just asume no one's straight, more focus on the people than anything else, myth becoming reality, slow-build friendship, slow-build romance, there's more but i didn't focus much on them, transphobic language?, unless i tell you otherwise, weird copin mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-08-28 04:25:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 49,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16716553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starysky205/pseuds/Starysky205
Summary: A project built on uncountable loses, a last resort measure, six brave and lucky souls, or are they?





	1. Him and Her

**Author's Note:**

> May the fights you win be fruitful, and may the fights you lose be gentle

_A figure stands in the darkness, head facing upwards, as if trying to engrave the sight before them to their eyes, it had been so long, terribly so, and the sky was clear, the stars started appearing one by one, the soft light made it somewhat more visible, the figure smiles_

_  
_

“It is hereby announced that the following countries are to choose two citizens, adult by law, to become part of the MAST project, the countries are: Greece, France and Argentina”

Many thought we would cause our own demise, but it was our will to get somewhere safe what made the trick, we bumped in a race deadly to us at first, then just dangerous as we adapted, but time passed and there was no stopping them, no winning, and although climate had not been guilty of our falling it did help a bunch, the earth was restless and resources were diming, then a citizen with no training made a discovery, and paid it with his life, the threat was weak to metal, the creature backed up to the golden ring on their hand, and exploded after the iron pan hit it, the explosion was mortal to the discoverer but technology made sure to save the event so we could have the advantage.

The discovery came a little too late, humanity had forgotten how to wield proper weapons for fighting, only using them for sport, there was also the fact that one couldn’t simply shoot a silver bullet at them, least they meet the same fate as the martyr who found out the weak point, so soldiers had to be re-trained, of course, the nations acted quick on this and as always those who decided they should be guides proposed a solution and those who don’t think they are fit put a condition, but everyone is aware of this by now.

He takes a few steps backwards, making sure there’s nothing to step on and trip, he heard the pod approaching way before the cabling showed anything, closing his eyes made listening to the soft hum of movement easier, he opened them again searching the space quickly and positioning himself before making a silent prayer, he sees the pod in the corner of his eye, ten seconds now…

Nine

Eight

Seven

He leans a bit back before sprinting.

Five

Four

He moves faster and jumps only when he reaches the very edge.

Two

One

Sneakers hit softly on stable ground, knees and body bending expertly, he makes a fast turn in time to see the pod rushing away, well that makes for victory number 100, now he needed to complete the rest of the track to the mailing office and get his number in the raffle, piece of cake. His body moves again and disappears with an elegant jump, never making any sound other than landing, he had been at this for a while now but he had always been quite silent, his dad often joked about getting him a bell, he appears again, now in the street, rushing into a particular building.

  


She walks into the building after a colorful cloud of a person, colorful because the guy before her didn’t have a normal hair color, though that wasn’t all that rare anymore, his clothing was a bit odd though, but she wasn’t going to judge the guy’s fashion sense.

She got in line after him, saw him jitter in his place without making a sound, it was very weird to say the least. Once he got done getting himself in the raffle it became her turn, she jolted down her ID number as requested and gave it to the machine, it scanned it, showed it to her for confirmation and then sent her in her way once it was over.

She walks calmly through the streets and almost swears she sees the same guy somehow climbing up a wall and disappearing into to wavering roofs of the city, shaking that thought out of her head to concentrate in the street and the people that walked in it, she renews her walking and when appropriate lets the crowd carry her, she gets to the right pod station and gets in, inside the smallish, bubble-shaped compartment a couple of ladies are gossiping about a freak kid that jumped through the way of pods seconds before they passed and how it was a miracle he was even still alive, the pod ascends to the proper level from the ground and then makes its fast track through the lines.

It takes four stations for the pod to be almost empty, it takes another two for her to have to get down alongside the one man that remained there as well, the pod takes the curve and goes wait in the station in front; she doesn’t stay to see if anyone gets in before it leaves.

The always busy and always moving Autonomic City of Buenos Aires, or CABA to make matters easier, was oddly empty today, or rather empty everywhere but the center of the city, where people were waiting in the park to get to listen live to the announcement of who would be partaking in the MAST project.  


  


He checked the clock on his wall, turned the TV on, put it on his preferred channel for this sort of thing, he then put popcorns in the microwave, he had time to waste and far too much energy, his dad got downstairs when he heard the popping, the two sat on the kitchen table and chatted calmly while waiting, the popcorns were done with the beeping of the microwave and by the time he sat down again the current president appeared on the screen.

“My fellow Argentineans, as you well know our country was amongst the ones chosen for the Military and Survival Training project…“

He drifted off a little, concentrating on eating the popcorns by the pair; his dad just grabbed a handful and ate from his hand. His attention was brought back to the screen.

“The citizens were to take part on a raffle, with the DNI numbers, to decide who would be the lucky ones to represent us, now it’s my honor to announce the winners are the following:

He crossed his fingers.

“Number 97432145”

He prayed to whoever was listening right now.

“And number 99046764”

He looked up, two pairs of eyes meeting, his father had a hard to read expression, as if he didn’t know quite what to feel, he didn’t blame him, couldn’t blame him, he didn’t quite know either, he had no clue what he had been hoping for when he crossed his fingers, nor when he prayed, sure he had insisted on entering the raffle as the idea of getting to kick otherworldly butts was quite appealing, but he also had a certain reluctance as he knew very well what the worse outcome was now, his father then gave him a tentative smile, half trying to reassure him, half trying to reassure himself, he returned the gesture softly.

  


She wasn’t cherry, but she wasn’t angry either, had no reason to be either of them, she had nothing to lose, but she also had nothing to gain, who was she to impress if she had nothing, who was she to fight for if she had no one, well, she guessed she could try and get on friendly terms with her fellow trainees, specially the one that shared nationalities with her, they could make for a getaway whenever it got too stuffy trying to fit with the Europeans, a small tentative smile appeared on her lips as she wondered what they would be like and if they would get along at all, she had the feeling they would.

News reporters then explained how the chosen ones were going to be get picked up by the government agents and escorted to the Pink House to learn about what they would be doing and then back to their homes to pack for the trip to the managing country.

  


He already had half of his packing list done, making sure to leave space for any specifics they would give him on the meeting, also leaving his clothes organized so it’d be easier and quicker, he then looked to the rest of the bedroom and found content on the contrasting mess he saw , he laid on a messily made bed and sighed looking at the ceiling, his open window gave entry to a small bird that flew in circles above him before settling by his head, he looks at it and it looks back, he finds solace in its dark eyes.

  


She starts packing right after she hear it, then she stops mid-way realizing she has no clue as to what she will need to take, she lay down in her bed staring at the ceiling thinking about what may and may not be on the list of items one would take to a military training, the survival part also probably played an important role on it, decisions, decisions, decisions! She let out a loud huff upwards and rolls on her bed to stare at a wall, such a pretty wall.


	2. Nice to meet you

The world had changed in countless ways, but change took a forced turn with the attacks, humanity could have been in a different place, not quite as safety-centered, though it sounded nice in retrospective, yet change didn’t deter humanity in the slightest. Someone with a bit of knowledge on ethics once said that humans tended to strive to break the rules that bind them for humanity is free, the free will caged will boil up into defiance. Of course, some act without much of a reason, something some people find hard to understand is, after all, that it’s not always necessary for there to be a reason at all.

With the security increased, the trip to the congress was longer than it should’ve been, though he usually made it on traffic-less ground so he couldn’t quite know if this was the average time on tires. She had never traveled on the street, always taking either the pod or the tube to get everywhere, sometimes a combination of both, traffic was something she knew though, and the waiting time to get to the congress was as expected for this hour.

The building stood in the same historical place as it had when it was built, the entrance was from the side and the security similar to that of an airport, the room they took them had lots of doors; they entered through different sides and were left alone. The room had a large table surrounded by chairs, probably meant for discussions or meetings; they sat on opposite sides of it, looking at each other. He broke the silence.

Slightly tanned hands were used to rest a similarly tanned head, turquoise locks long enough to fall on amber eyes that looked in a mix of curiosity and boredom.

“Well, I guess we’ll be here waiting for our dear president”

His voice was high-pitched and a bit loud though he was obviously keeping the volume down, the sarcastic tone combined with the way Spanish rolled easily out of his tongue spoke of him being born in the city they were part of.

Amber eyes moved to meet toffee brown ones on bronze-colored skin, she tilted her head at the wording; black hair falling in unnoticeable waves, softly, like it didn’t quite know whether to curl or stay straight.

“I’ll take it you don’t like them too much”

Her voice was soft and melodic; resounding nicely in the walls of the room, her wording and vocabulary spoke of a past long lost in some other city and a hasty present on this one.

He chuckled, the sound vibrating and breaking whatever barrier stood between them, it was short and low, almost like a huff of air that got way too cherry to be called a sigh. He smiled brightly at her, straightening so he could look straight into her eyes.

“I’m Mercyan Ghesh; we’ll probably be training together, so I thought I should introduce myself”

It was said as a suggestion and an invitation for her to do like him, not that she minded.

“I’m Morena Serez, nice to meet you”

Her smile was tentative, still unsure of what to think of the seemingly overly confident teen in front of her.

“Likewise”

It was an odd situation to say the least, he was an odd person as well, though there wasn’t much time to ponder about that just yet, one of the doors opened and they met with the one on charge of the city.

The Argentinean president was hard to describe, a serious expression on an aged up face, still impossible to say what they looked like other than that.

“I see you two met each other, that’s really good”

The voice was toneless whilst carrying a bundle of emotions, contradictory yet fitting all the same, the same kind of voice any other politician acquired once they rose to power; it was dull to say the least

 “Now, let’s get to business, what I’m about to tell you is not to leave this room, it’ll be explained to all who participate in the project”

They slid down two brown envelopes before striating themselves and resting their arms in the table.

“Once you get there you’ll be divided in groups of three, one from each country and will be trained in military combat and survival skills, in these envelopes you’ll find a list of things you will need, you will meet with the other trainees in a week on a secret facility, you will be explained the rules by the person in charge of you”

They then smiled, it was a soft curve of the lips that one couldn’t quite point out as real or fake neither what he felt in particular.

 “But first we’ll have to introduce you to the population; they’re dying to meet their heroes”

The two Argentineans were taken to separate rooms to be fixed up if only to look somewhat decent, there was no way of taking out the dye of Mercyan’s hair so it stayed like it was for which he was grateful. When they met again they were all dolled up and Morena couldn’t help but laugh when the first thing that left Mercyan’s lips was a-

“Least my hair is still rebellious”

After Morena finally got her breath back; and Mercyan too, they were lead to the room that opened to the balcony, they were told to wait until the president called them. The president gave a speech on the project, which consisted on the known explanation of the project and who were participating, followed by what was done to choose the participants in their country and finally they got to the part that concerned them.

“Our first winner is number 97432145”

Morena took in a deep breath Mercyan glanced at her and then back forwards, when Morena looked his way before moving all she saw was determination, it was incredibly reassuring in such a situation.

She stepped outside and the president signaled her to stand beside them; then made her introduce herself.

“I’m Morena Serez and I’m number 97432145”

There was a roar from the public, apparently too excited about their trainees to care for much else; then the president moved back in front of the mike.

“The second is number 99046764”

Mercyan strode out, confident and quiet; he stood straight and somewhat stoic, his voice was clear and serious.

“I’m Mercyan Ghesh and I’m number 99046764”

Another cheer broke through, the president kept talking but everything was a blur as amber eyes moved to look at coffee brown ones, it wasn’t a simple introduction they screamed, this was a promise for change.


	3. One kind of a crew

A military base hidden from the world view, down on the depth, safe from any attacks, inside a woman walks in front of a group of four young adults, the sound of something fast slowing down nearby them caught her attention, maybe the last two would show her something worth the time.

Doors opened to the last two recruits, the Argentineans, a girl with tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, walked alongside a boy that was her complete opposite, somewhat pale but sun kissed, eyes bright and hair even brighter, turquoise was such an eye catching color, he stood straight in front of her, one step closer than the girl, protective somewhat but there wasn’t a threat, it probably was for the girl’s sake, she seemed a bit tense, another to join the group.

“Names and origin”

The girl glanced at the boy who gave a slight nod, she then looked at her; she wondered what they had told this two.

“I’m Morena Serez, from Argentina”

The boy spoke next.

“And I’m Mercyan Ghesh, from there as well”

She nodded then; there was something odd about this duo.

“I’m Captain Noemi Shean; I’m in charge of your training”

Their English was good, the boy’s better than the girl’s, she probably learned it by chip while he took lessons, it stood out in the effortless way he spoke and the paced way she did, it was an interesting contrast with the rest of the trainees in the room, no accent, no loss for words.

“Welcome to the armadillo base, the first day will be for you to adapt to your fellow trainees and your surroundings”

With that said she walked away, she’d be watching from afar the events of this day; she would have time to analyze the two Argentineans later.

Once the Captain was gone one of the others approached them, she looked to be the youngest of the whole group, her hair and eyes dark and so was her skin.

“You are from Argentine right? What is it like there?”

Morena was the one to answer, a bit taken aback.

“Windy mostly”

Mercyan let out a laugh at that, she looked at him confused.

“That was weak Morena, though it does sum up CABA quite well, but she’s probably asking about something besides the weather”

He then smiled at the girl softly, a different expression from the ones before, he seemed to be holding back something.

“If you tell me your name I’ll tell you about my country mademoiselle”

The girl smiled then, eyes widening, Morena hadn’t realized the slip until now, the girl had said the name of their country in French instead of English.

“I’m Marianne Lyons”

Mercyan did a little bow.

“Enchantè”

Morena couldn’t help but chuckle at his attitude, Marianne seemed to be in the same predicament, when he straightened again he gave her a wink.

“Argentina is a giant maze with a temper, and the same could be said about its people, you can’t find two people alike but some come very close to being copies, confusing would be a good word to sum it up”

This seemed to catch the interest of one of the three others, he was a bit taller than Mercyan, tanned skin, brown hair and grey eyes, he looked older too though Mercyan was definitely leaner.

“Aren’t you being a little hard on your home?”

Mercyan chuckled before smiling the most honest until then; he raised a finger like he was going to say something essential.

“Home isn’t the place you come from but the place you want to go back to”

Another trainee approached, this one was frowning, blonde with sky blue eyes and sun kissed skin.

“What are you, some kind of anime character?”

Mercyan’s features changed, his body relaxed but it felt as if the tension had gone to the air instead, a smirk formed in his lips.

“Do you watch anime as well frenchy?”

“My name is Louis Bellot, not frenchy”

He seemed rather pissed off; the guy who talked first cleared his throat catching their attention.

“You know, we’re supposed to form a team here, fighting won’t do you any good”

Mercyan went back to a more amicable smile, confident and polite.

“I have yet to hear your name by the way, same for the other Greek in the room”

Marianne glanced at Morena but the older girl didn’t understand the Argentinean either, the Greek boy gave a nod to him.

“I’m Nicodemus Kokkalis”

Mercyan then glanced at the last person in the room with them, he looked the oldest by far, red hair and green eyes; he smiled as well.

“Lysander Vryzas, I’m a bit curious as to how you knew who was from where”

Mercyan’s smile widened a little; his eyes seemed to practically gleam, like he had been waiting for someone to ask him.

“You see… I have a sixth sense for that sort of thing”

Lysander seemed amused, Louis practically growled while Nicodemus sighed. Marianne approached Mercyan and pointed at him.

“I like you, you’re weird”

Mercyan beamed at her and Morena blinked not really knowing what just happened, apparently her fellow Argentinean had an easy time making friends, maybe she should try doing that as well.

“Is it common in your country to be so friendly?”

And so she was pulled right into it by the younger of the Greeks, he had said his name was Nicodemus, sounded like a philosopher.

“Depends on the Argentinean really, is a big country, people vary like the weather”

She heard Mercyan let out a loud laugh at that, short like he couldn’t agree more, Marianne was now looking at her, she smiled shyly at the younger girl; she turned to Mercyan.

“She’s pretty, is she weird too?”

“I have no clue; why don’t you ask her”

Marianne smiled and then approached her, for a girl that had to be at least eighteen she was acting extremely childish.

“Are you weird?”

Mercyan busted out laughing, Morena was taken aback and then laughed as well, Marianne smiled at her and winked, maybe she misjudged the girl.


	4. Fencing

They were divided in rooms for two; thankfully the arrangements had in account the gender of the people who would live in them, she was going to share with Marianne, Mercyan seemed a bit edgy although his roommate, Lysander, was the same, the Argentinean kept the smile on his face though and somehow the situation diffused.

When she woke up and headed to the hall where they had all first met, he found the two of them sword fighting, it was a first to see Mercyan serious but he seemed to be faring better than Lysander, then Mercyan flipped the Greek’s sword away.

“Your hand is wrong; if you keep it like that you’ll lose your sword immediately”

Nicodemus was there as well, watching from the sidelines.

“Has this been going for long?”

He moved his eyes to her.

“A bit, it’s not like either of them knows how to do it, but Mercyan seems to at least know how to handle a sword”

They went back to watching the other two; Mercyan was fixing Lysander’s hand, then showing why it was held this or that way.

“My dad is a museologist, he works on a museum that exhibits weapons from different times; he has to know how to properly handle them so I learned a few things from watching”

Lysander stood straight holding the sword like Mercyan showed him, point facing downwards.

“Your memory seems to be extremely useful, but you move like an animal”

Mercyan spun his sword once he was well away from him, as if thinking something.

“I’ve been doing parkour since I was thirteen, though I already had some gymnastics before that, this sword is a bit heavy though, I wonder if they have anything shorter”

Marianne and Louis entered the room then, both of them seemed to be talking about something and stopped when they saw the scene.

“Do you want to keep sparing, or will you wait for a new sword?”

Mercyan gave the sword to Nicodemus before turning again towards Lysander.

“I will wait for a new blade, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop sparing, I have way too much energy anyway”

Louis stepped up then, glaring at Mercyan who kept smiling.

“If that’s the case, then I’ll take you up”

“Oh? You fight frenchy?”

Louis attacked; Mercyan dodged it with a step.

“My name is Louis”

He attacked again, this time he was blocked, Mercyan was still smiling.

“3 seconds”

Louis stepped back confused, Mercyan showed him the arm he used to block him.

“The time it takes for you to reach full speed when you threw the punch, it’s kinda high considering you don’t exactly put much force in the beginning”

Louis attacked once more and Mercyan dodged this one.

“You piss me off”

Mercyan hit him on the back making him stumble then whipped around his leg to make him fall.

“You shouldn’t stop to talk”

Lysander sat now with Morena, Nicodemus and Marianne, the older Greek and the young French seemed amused, Morena had no idea what was happening anymore and Nicodemus seemed busy weighting the sword he was just given.

“Listen, anger can only be considered a weapon when you have the skills to back it up, and I’m not precisely the one you’re angry at”

And then just like that the smile appeared again on his face, he turned around to face the door Captain Shean had walked away through, it opened to show the woman in question as she regarded the scene in front of her, Mercyan bowed like a magician after a trick.

Morena was sure now that things had long since stopped making any sense so long as they concerned one Mercyan Ghesh.

“He’s quite the show off”

Nicodemus’ voice surprised her, she was pretty sure he had been studying the sword up to now, though the weapon now laid besides him in the wall, she hadn’t really been paying attention to him.

“I think he’s a whole different species from us”

Nicodemus hummed before smiling a little and looking at her.

“I don’t really think anyone here is all that normal though, or have you not noticed?”

Morena didn’t know what he was talking about, Nicodemus blinked and then shrugged.

“Guess not”

Captain Noemi Shean made her appearance then, striding in the room with a confident step.

“Very well sad excuses for trainees, time to find out if you were a lucky draw, or a terrible decision”

She grabbed a handle in particular, it was a short sword, she weighted it, she walked to Mercyan who was now standing straight, she offered him the handle, he grabbed it but kept still, she nodded and then backed up, drawing her own sword and backing up, Mercyan switched hands grabbing the handle like he showed Lysander, the blade stayed on his left hand, one foot moved forward while the other turned, the right hand was kept on his back.

“Show off”

Nicodemus said more to himself than to Morena, though she heard him perfectly, he didn’t seem very bothered by Mercyan’s attitude though, more like amused, what followed next was incredibly vexing, Captain Shean moved first starting a dance of sorts with Mercyan, he seemed focused only on his movements and sword but dodged her with an agility proper of anything but a human, the fighting was a bit different from the one he had with Lysander, the captain seemed to be evaluating each and every move the Argentinean made, Morena hopped he was doing well.

Marianne moved to sit beside Morena, eyes fixed on the scene in front of her, the older girl seemed to be trying to make sense of what was happening, she glanced at Nicodemus who had his eyes on the fight for a different reason, the Argentinean girl probably didn’t know then, Marianne wondered how many in the room where in the same situation, Louis seemed unknowing though he definitely felt something, Lysander seemed to be analyzing everyone to a different level than the captain so he probably knew, and Mercyan…  A left turn, a right swing, a few steps back and then ahead, taking of only the second the threat has turned into a reality, dangerous and yet efficient. Marianne was certain that the young Argentinean man had no clue as to his own true nature.

They separated, Mercyan was panting but unscratched, the captain sheathed her sword and stood straight, she seemed to regard Mercyan a bit different than when the sparing started.

“You have a good stamina and great instincts, but you lack form, still that shouldn’t take you very long, you can keep the sword”

She then left the room, Mercyan sighed once she was out of sight; amber eyes drifting off to where the others were sitting; he then smiled.

“I think she likes me”

“Imbécile"

“That’s mean frenchy”

“Stop calling me that”

Marianne giggled getting Morena’s attention; she looked at the older girl happily.

“Those two seem to get along”

“I really don’t think that’s the case”

“Ah, she talks!”

Mercyan laughed at that, Morena turned confused as to when he had gotten there, it seemed like he got along quite well with the French girl, though everyone but Louis seemed quite at ease with him, she wondered why.


	5. Nicknames

For the survival training they were divided into teams of three, but the military training was up to choice for them, there were days for specific things though, Mondays was sword fighting, in which Mercyan was still the best even though all of them were new to that, Tuesday was sparing, or fisticups as Mercyan had once called it and then had to doge a punch thrown by Louis, the French was of the best even with Mercyan’s animalistic instincts, Friday was for stamina, they run through courses working on different skills for certain periods of time, anything to do with climbing was apparently Mercyan’s forte, though Marianne was the best when it came to passing below the net, Nicodemus was the best runner, and Lysander was the strongest one of the group, Morena seemed to be the odd one out until the survival training.

The two groups were divided so that there would be one of each country in them, Morena had been grouped with Lysander and Louis while Mercyan was now chatting with Marianne and Nicodemus, she didn’t know whether to be worried about the male French’s seemingly short temper, or relieved he hadn’t ended up with Mercyan, it was obvious to her that the conversation of the previous day was still ringing in Louis’ ears, but she was also sure Mercyan had long since let it go, or at least she believed he had, it was extremely hard to read her fellow Argentinean.

Marianne was no fool, she knew the moment Mercyan had spoken to him, that Louis had decided he was his number one enemy, but Marianne had been captivated by the seemingly self-confident Argentinean and his ability to judge the provenance of people, when she had asked later how he had known he had told her that she had used his country’s name in French instead of English, then he guessed the rest on basis to how they reacted to her, it ended up being right but he was kind of sheepish about it.

When the teams had been chosen she didn’t quite know whether to be exited or just glad that she was the French in this mix, Mercyan was great and Nicodemus seemed like the kind of guy who’d balance well with the two of them. 

Survival consisted in accomplishing a list of certain things that would be matters of life and death if they were to end lost in their missions, the two teams were given the same list and had Captain Shean explain that it’ll be quicker if they divide chores.

“Mercyan could probably be on look out; he probably can sense other animals”

Everyone looks rather unimpressed by Louis’ comment, Mercyan smirks.

“I can actually”

And as the smile is whipped of Louis’ face, Mercyan has been surrounded by his two teammates and is getting questioned about his answer, he explains he learned from watching birds, Marianne is trying to find a bird that looks like Mercyan and Nicodemus actually offers ideas.

“He’s a magpie, I’m pretty sure”

Mercyan grins at the Greek and Marianne is trying to remember what magpie translates to, Mercyan keeps telling her characteristics of the bird because he can’t remember either and Louis is too stubborn to help.

“Anyway, yes, I am a magpie”

Nicodemus rolls his eyes with a tiny smile, Marianne smiles at them happily.

“Let’s give our team a name!”

Mercyan smiles at her

“Oh? I like how you think”

Nicodemus sighs, accepting his fate.

“What were you thinking about?”

Marianne grins brightly, Mercyan is right with her and Nicodemus wonders if maybe he made the wrong decision.

“Team Stalactite”

Marianne looks like she just said the best name in history, Mercyan snorts and Nicodemus sighs yet again.

“That was perfect, my stars, let’s definitely call it that”

Nicodemus wonders about Mercyan’s choice in words but lets it be for the moment when he gets an idea to mess with the three people watching this amused.

“But you can’t just name our team; those three won’t follow the example”

The way those amber eyes look at him with almost literal sparkles tells him it worked, the way Marianne shares the expression further proves this.

“Hmm, you’re right; they do need a name too”

She looks at Mercyan who puts a hand on his chin in a pensive manner, he’s quite expressive with his movements, Nicodemus doesn’t think too much about it but he notices it just as much as anyone else who looks at Mercyan for more than two seconds.

“What about team Krypton?”

He said snapping his fingers face contorting in what had to be the strangest expression he made yet, Nicodemus would bet his life on the fact that only Morena would be anywhere near understanding what it was, and maybe not even her.

“But I thought you were our kryptonite?”

Lysander leaned towards the Argentinean with a grin and the other busted laughing at the comment.

“That was perfect Ly”

Marianne blinked before glancing from one to the other

“Ly?”

Nicodemus was curious too, with them sharing a bedroom it came as no surprise that the two were on friendly terms, though things could have gone awry, but they acted a little to comfortable around each other.

“It’s common in Argentina to shorten the names of your friends into nicknames”

It was rather off-putting to hear the explanation from Morena instead of Mercyan like he was more used to, but the younger Argentinean was now looking a bit pale.

“Is it ok for me to call you that? I forgot to ask, old habits die hard you know”

His amber eyes were set on Lysander’s green ones, the older Greek smiled softly, like an older brother who was trying to reassure his younger sibling, the comparison seemed fitting in the head of the younger Greek.

“Sure Mer”

Mercyan chuckled at that, all tension leaving him, Marianne pouted at him.

“No fair, I want a nickname too!”

Louis let out a loud groan at them, there was no way around with him it seemed; though Nicodemus couldn’t care less, he had tried to be nice to the other trainee but the guy’s temper got on his nerves, he figured he wasn’t the only one in that predicament.

“You should probably give one to everyone while you’re at it”

Lysander was resting on a nearby wall eyeing Louis; it seemed as though as the eldest trainee had sent a silent message to Mercyan with the action, because the Argentinean glanced too before sighing and shaking his head in disbelief, Nicodemus wondered how much the younger really knew.

“Well, you have to be Mar”

“Θάλασσα?”

He didn’t notice he had said it out loud until the amber eyes were staring at his own gray orbs, he looked at him in surprise but something was almost shining in it too.

“Yes, sea”

It was said breathless, for a moment he looked whimsical, like something ripped out of a story, it passed in a single second; soon he was free of the stilling gaze as the Argentinean cleared his throat and gave Marianne a charming smile.

“It means sea in Spanish, vast, mysterious and untamable; it serves for the short of your name in Spanish too, so it fits”

The last word was followed by a wink that had Marianne snorting; she then threw her hands up happily.

“I like it!”

She took off; Mercyan was behind her immediately, for two people who had only known each other for a week their smiles matched like they were old friends.

“Mary is way too English”

Voice raised, like he was trying to recite poetry instead of just playing around.

“And Maria would have been going too far”

He jumped, landing into a prop, arms going to a straight line at first as he let himself waver to the sides.

“Like the rage, the calm, the wild sea, fitting enough for you dear”

He sung with the tune used in pirate movies, letting his accent take over, he did a pirouette out of his perch and bowed in front of Marianne.

“It’s beautiful Mer, now the rest!”

Mercyan straightened and turned to smirk at the group, Louis was glaring back at him, though Mercyan didn’t seem to pay him much attention.

“For Morena, Mor, so we can have all the vocals, or at least the ones we can”

The Argentinean girl shrugged, like she didn’t care much, and then Mercyan looked at Nicodemus again, this time in the way the Greek had grown used to.

“I’d like to give you something better than Nico, but I’ve wasted my inspiration on team Krypton, sorry”

Louis made a step towards the other but was held back by Lysander, Louis brushed the hand away with force and stormed away, Lysander sighed and looked at Morena.

“Could you make sure he heads in the right direction?”

The Argentinean gave a short nod and rushed after the French, Lysander then looked at Mercyan and gave a nod that the other answered with short seriousness, then he followed after the other two after grabbing the bag they were given.

Marianne approached Nicodemus first, still smiling a little; Mercyan went back to his more held-back demeanor, Nicodemus took their bag.

“Maybe you should lay off a bit”

His voice didn’t sound the way it should, more like a passing comment instead of a critique, though Nicodemus hadn’t felt like it was needed, Mercyan sighed.

“I have my reasons to push his buttons, though he’s more of a pain in the ass than I first thought”

Marianne scoffed at that, it was still a bit odd for her to go into serious mode for training; Mercyan had been the first one to accommodate, though that didn’t come as much of a surprise.

“Anyway, we should get going as well”

It was a suggestion but somehow it worked better that way, the three walked to the lifts, they were going to take a private pod to the location, it’d be a while for them to get there, for a moment Nicodemus wondered if the other three would be able to get to their destination on one piece.


	6. Team Krypton

Pod was the name given to the electronically driven ‘bubbles’ that functioned as the main transportation from one place to another, the spherical conjectures could go at amazing speeds, shortening the travel time, all in all they were a great invention, though currently Morena was wondering if it was really safe for them to travel this visibly.

“You know; I’ve been meaning to ask you something”

Louis light blue eyes were looking at some point far away, Morena glanced at Lysander and the Greek seemed just as surprised.

“Sure, ask away”

Louis finally looked at her, then glanced at Lysander momentarily and looked back to the window.

“Why do you follow him so willingly?”

Morena knew as well as anyone that Louis didn’t like Mercyan one bit, but the question didn’t seem to spout out of the immediate hatred the French felt for the Argentinean, but more out of curiosity.

“I think it would have to curiosity in my case, you know him a bit better, right Lysander?”

Green eyes moved to her; then to Louis, he let out a chuckle nodding.

"I would say so, yes, but my reasons for following him aren’t something you two would understand”

Morena knew Louis would react before he did, Lysander was playing Mercyan’s game it seemed, or maybe he did know something they didn’t.

“Is it ok for me to ask what you mean with that?”

Lysander looked at her, a soft smile forming in his features.

“Maybe some other time, we need to concentrate on our training right now”

Morena hummed at that, Louis made a disagreeing noise, all in all it seemed like things were going to be much quieter without team stalactite, Morena was still confused as to why stalactite though, maybe she could ask them when they made it back.

Once they arrived at the arranged stop they were picked up by military vehicles, through uneven land but without any means of view.

“You should stop looking around like that; they wouldn’t get anything from showing us the way there”

Lysander looked from his position in his palm to her direction, Morena could definitely follow his logic; Louis then opened his eyes and looked at them with a bored expression.

“We’ve traveled for at least four hours; the humidity is rising so I’m guessing we’re being sent to a forest of sorts, if not woods”

Morena blinked at him, impressed and also feeling out of place.

“Your senses sure are something, though it’s been longer than that”

Morena was feeling more and more useless by the second; it was hard to be surrounded by so many people with talent for this kind of things, she was starting to feel frustrated. Louis, on the other hand was opening and closing his mouth like a fish, probably trying to come up with some way to tell Lysander to cut the tone but also dealing with the fact that he brought it upon himself.

“I have a question for you Louis”

It didn’t come out exactly like she wanted, more like he had offended her even though her face was showing purely curiosity, Louis just looked at her closing his mouth.

“Why do you hate Mercyan so much?”

What little she had learned of the two had her believing that in different circumstances, with Louis not hating Mercyan, they would’ve made a good team if not good friends, if the French actually got around whatever it was that bothered him then maybe being a functioning military group wouldn’t be so farfetched.

“He’s the kind that gets liked by everyone effortlessly, it pisses me off”

Morena was kind of surprised he answered so honestly, and that the reason was so simple.

“But if you hate him then he can’t be that kind of person”

Louis actually chuckled at the comment, it seemed as if part of the tension had gone away, he smiled at her

“I guess that’s true”

Lysander glanced at the two and smiled, it was good to know his theory was correct; maybe he should do something for the connivance of their group as well, maybe once they got to their destiny.

 

The trip is long and starts ascending, so he knows they’ll be somewhere high, Morena seems bothered by something, which is worrisome considering they would be thrown to the wilderness and left to your own devises with her and Louis, you figure Louis won’t be cooperative at first but he was hoping to count with Morena from the get go, maybe he should ask.

“Is there something bothering you?”

Tired eyes meet his own, he could see the gears turning in her head, like this was something she didn’t want to discuss but knew had to be talked about, they were reddened from staying open a little too long, still they were very healthy compared to those of his roommate, Mercyan had told him on the first night that he had trouble falling asleep and staying that way, it didn’t affect him much but his eyelids had darkened and his skin had paled a bit over the course of the training, he was always full of energy though and to be honest Lysander had no idea how he did it, Morena’s tiredness was different,  one more akin to having been mulling over a thought for far too long by herself, she sighs with all her body and not just her mouth.

“I’m a bit jealous is all; you guys are a bit too talented for my sake”

Lysander realized that for all that she ignored, there was a something sensing as some sort of second nature, it had worried him for a while that maybe she had been an exception to the group, not that it would’ve been strange, they were the odd ones that had the grace of being grouped together, he smiled softly.

“Talent doesn’t help much without proper guidance, and someone who’s been doing something their whole life will be better at it than someone with talent for it, even if they’re not recognized”

There was a whistle and Lysander found himself looking at the hard eyes of Louis, though the usual sharpness had been dropped in favor for actual surprise, there was too much resent there for them to soften but Lysander called it a victory regardless.

“I think that’s the most you’ve ever spoken”

Morena laughed then, something glistening in her eyes, her entire being relaxed and even teasing, Lysander raised an eyebrow.

“Oh no, I’m sure he speaks a lot to our human magpie”

For the first time the hard blue eyes turned soft and shone with something akin to mirth, a smile made its way into his face, the two shared a look and Lysander smiled impressed.

“Maybe you two aren’t so bad”

Lysander couldn’t agree more to Louis’ statement.


	7. The survival training

It was mountain ground, the only trees visible were pines, of different types but pines nonetheless, there was a good amount of pinecones in the ground, but it lacked the presence of humans, there were no marked trails and  very few broken pinecones, the grass grew stubbornly and she knew it’d be sharp like thorns, the air was cold and as soon as the vehicles had gone away she was suddenly aware of their current situation, she had known of course but now it had fully sunk in, Morena was face to face with a familiar predicament, she needed to survive, only this time, she wasn’t alone.

It was a weird thought, the whole ‘I have others with me’ mentality, now that she really thought about it, though she couldn’t quite place whether the weirdness came from the thought itself, or the fact that she never had it before, maybe a combination of both, if one good thing came out of this it’d probably be her new ability to acknowledge the possibility of causes pilling up on a single indescribable mess of a feeling, maybe she was spending too much time with Marianne.

When they finally stopped Morena felt a buzz in her ears, instinctively she moved her jaw like she was chewing and felt the change in volume; they were high.

The ground was covered in dried pine leaves, pinecones and a few leaves from other trees, their custody walked them deeper and deeper, until the marked path disappeared and roots took the place with rock helping. Morena could hear a few calls of birds, for a moment she thought of Mercyan and decided that the younger Argentinean probably knew each one, she imagined Marianne asking every time after the first one he answer, Nicodemus probably buts in every now and then with who would be each bird, making Mercyan laugh and by consequence Marianne too, those three had an amazing chemistry. ‘Team Krypton’ was barely starting to take form properly, Louis was finally starting to open up, more towards her than Lysander, but that wa a progress; now he walked besides he, eyes surveying the area, Morena was sure he’d remember it by heart if they needed to come back on their own.

By the time they stopped Morena was completely lost, hopefully her teammates were better off, she doubted they would have her same problem so it was somewhat okay, it did make her angry at herself though, which was to be expected.

 

The area they were left on lacked any grass, rather it was sand that covered the ground, which would mean making a fire would require them gathering a bunch of dry leaves, and dry wood, and preferably some dry rocks too, though the sand would make killing the fire much easier.

Louis figured that the best course of action was questioning their escorts for what exactly they were supposed to do. One thing about being the most unsocial of the group was that he got to talk with the soldiers they were training with, one of them was a guy about the age of Lysander, or older, who was called Alistair, he seemed to be assigned to their team, since he was always around the three of them.

It was a wonder how he hadn’t realized who would be on a team with who, though Nicodemus and Lysander seemed to be on the wrong teams, or at least Lysander considering how well he seemed to get along with the male Argentinean, though the resulting trio had seemed well suited for each other once they started talking, to be honest Louis was glad these soldiers weren’t forcing him to get along with Mercyan just yet, though he was sure that when the moment came they would be able to work through it without too much drama, it wasn't anything Mercyan had done, but rather how the people who surrounded him acted, they were the same people that surrounded Louis, so he saw, saw the confident stride and the easy-going smiles, and for once didn’t think them idiots, but could tell they weren’t just what they let out, Morena could be, but Lysander… Lysander knew what it was that everyone was hiding it seemed, Louis would pay good money to find out just who much he knew.

“So, what exactly it is that you want us to do?”

The younger of the two soldiers, Alistair if he remembered correctly, gave the other one a heavy look, like he had predicted the question. The other one was obviously older, his name was Iran, Louis was pretty sure, and he didn’t seem to find the way the other looked at him funny.

“Why do you ask?”

The older had a strong accent, nothing Louis could recognize for sure but he wasn’t American like the rest of the soldiers around them.

“Well, if you wanted us to find our way back you would’ve covered our eyes”

The younger of the two looked at the older, who sighed in defeat.

“We were supposed to tell them either way”

The younger grinned for a moment before going into an awkward serious state; Louis resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow .

“There used to be a hamlet of sorts in this area, though there are only a few houses left and they’re well spread apart”

The older then took out a photo, a picture of a bunch of swords ordered in a table.

“One of the houses in particular was home of a collectionist, what we want you to do is find it and bring back as many weapons as you can”

Louis nodded and looked at his teammates, they nodded at him but he caught the weary expression on Morena’s face.

“You may start right away”

Louis straightened, trying not to compare it to anything, to not let it get to his expression.

“Yes sir”

He turns around, Morena is the first one to follow, Lysander takes out a compass from his provided backpack before following as well; he walks a little away from Morena and him for a while.

“They’ve turned around and left, I think you left an impression”

Louis shrugs, Morena is looking around like she noticed something; this ought to be good.

“Is there a problem”

Morena nods slowly before looking at him; her eyes are troubled, like she fears he won’t believe her.

“It’ll sound crazy, but I have the feeling I should know this place”

She looks around again, then faces a direction in particular, a frown forming on her face.

“There was a fence of sorts, more like a marker, made out of wood, if we are where I think this is”

 Lysander looked to the compass.

“That’d be the north east and it’s not like we have a map of the area or anything”

He then looked at Morena

“I am curious as to why you think you know this place”

Morena smiled sheepishly, Louis knew then that she was probably going to say something ridiculous and reminded himself that this wasn’t Mercyan; he didn’t want to snap at her.

“It’s mostly the ground, its sand instead of earth, man-made forests and what not”

Louis was actually impressed at that, he hadn’t noticed much, just to notice where it would slip so he wouldn’t fall down, he decided it’d be better to ignore it so to not be bothered by the feeling it’d leave on his feet.

“I say we start walking before we lose the light”

That said he headed in the direction Morena and Lysander were facing and soon enough he heard the footsteps of his teammates.

“Thanks Louis”

Somehow her voice made him feel light; he tried not to think about that either, at least not right now.

It didn’t take them long to find the fence, though, as mentioned by Morena it was more of a marker of sorts, to define the limit of the forest and what could’ve been a street, but to find a house in the overgrown forest was a whole different deal, they reached a clearing by the time the sun was setting and decided to set camp, Morena impressed them again by making the meal, and calling them hopeless for not knowing how to ration food, Lysander made the situation light hearted by joking around and Louis took the first watch when they were done eating, after thanking her for the food, which earned him a proud smile and he decided that he was ok with being hopeless when it came to cooking.

The other two stayed a little longer after eating, talking about one thing or the other, then silence, and then Lysander started humming something that sounded like a pirate tune.

“I thought you hated that song!”

“It’s incredibly catchy!”

Louis had half the mind to approach them and ask but it was probably something related with Mercyan, he remembered something about Lysander complaining earlier, so it made sense that it would revolve around his roommate, there was also the fact that Mercyan was obsessed with pirates, so Louis decided to ignore it and save himself the headache, things were going well after all, no reason to ruin it.


	8. The odd one out

The forest was cold on the morning, which was enough to wake them up, they drank a bit of water and stumbled onto the first signs of lost civilization, though the building was completely destroyed but they found a fruit tree nearby and got to eat breakfast, after Lysander checked said fruits for edibility.

Louis kept leading the pace and soon they found more and more abandoned buildings, most of which had been destroyed by the fauna or just weren’t what they were looking for, there were a few episodes with insects and small animals, but nothing dangerous, although they discovered Morena was unfazed by any of them, which was slightly amusing because Lysander was the complete opposite, Louis tried not to laugh whenever the Greek hid behind the Argentinean when faced with a bug, the animals didn’t bother him as much, but Louis was still pretty amused by it all.

At some point Morena and Lysander had enough of the technicality of things so far and had a conversation that ended on Lysander singing the chorus of that one song he had been humming lately, and then complaining about not being able to get it out of his head, so the Argentinean found something else to talk about, Louis only got interested at one thing.

“I mean, Morena is Spanish, so I guess it counts as Argentinean, but there probably are some names from the original tribes, yours sounds more English than Greek actually”

Lysander chuckled but nodded at the statement, Louis walked a little slower.

“Well, Louis has a very French name”

“Oh yes, I’m the newest king of France, bow to me”

He didn’t realize he had said it out loud until Morena started laughing, followed by a surprised Lysander, he decided to advert the subject once they calmed down some.

“Is Mercyan really an Argentinean name?”

“No, not really, Ghesh could be an Argentinean surname sure, but his name is a bit too English for an Argentinean”

Lysander looked from one to the other for a moment, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Mercyan isn’t his real name, I’m pretty sure he made it up, it’s just the name he goes by”

“That doesn’t help my view on the guy Lysander”

“It isn’t supposed to; I’m just saying”

“Do you know his real name then?”

Lysander shakes his head no and then shrugs like it’s nothing, Morena frowns and Louis finds himself meeting eyes with hers, he’s glad he isn’t the only one unnerved by this.

“If you really think it’s that big of a deal you can always ask him, Mer isn’t the most secretive person, I know this much and it’s only been a week or so”

“But you share a room with him; I’m honestly not sure how to go about approaching him for something like that”

“And he’d probably get me riled up before I can even say a word”

“And thus why you didn’t know this yet, Marianne and Nicodemus probably know as well, if you feel more comfortable talking with them”

“I’m sure Marianne would be glad to over share about Mercyan, but I don’t really think Nicodemus is the type to give out information so easily”

“Speaking of Nicodemus, how come he gets along so well with Mercyan anyway?”

Morena and Lysander exchange a look, it irks Louis somewhat, but he manages to remain calm.

“Nicodemus finds Mercyan interesting, in more ways than one”

Morena blushes and looks away, Lysander is looking at Louis oddly; he doesn’t know what to make of it.

“Finding someone attractive and liking someone are two different things though”

Lysander seems actually surprised, it makes Louis wonder just how bad of an impression he left on everyone; all he did was antagonize a cocky Argentinean.

“Metaphorically speaking, if Mercyan is the gravity, then Nicodemus is the cold and Marianne is the water”

“I think you’re taking their made up name a little too seriously”

“Really? I like that idea, it seems fitting”

“And we’re like gas atoms, drifting close but not enough of each other, but with the right conditions we’ll come together as something solid”

“We are not calling our team Krypton!”

Morena actually laughs at that, Lysander follows a bit surprised, Louis cracks a smile before rolling his eyes at the other two.

Then Morena stops dead, which causes the two following to stumble on their steps and look at her oddly, she then strides forward to what looks like a moss wall, she begins to take it away revealing wood beneath, Louis and Lysander exchange a look nodding before walking to help her out. A few minutes, and three pairs of greenish hands, later, they’ve revealed a door, Morena tries it but it doesn’t budge.

“Stand back”

The Greek and the Argentinean do as told, and Louis gives the door a kick, managing to knock it down, he moves to the side and offers Morena to be the first one in, she turns her flashlight on and moves into the hidden house followed by the two guys.

Despite the greenery outside, the inside has stayed rather dry, if only dim, Morena keeps the light on a level were they can see the floor and a little further ahead, there are a few small animals scurrying away from the beam, Louis catches Lysander flinching with a few smaller shapes, things have remained mostly in their place, sans a few that are now laying on the floor, the air is think but otherwise breathable.

The floor is wood and it groans underneath their weight, the first floor is large; enough for a big family, there’s a staircase that indicates there being a second floor, once they’ve checked everything in the first floor they find themselves looking at the wooden staircase wearily.

“I’ll go first; I think I might be the lightest one of us three”

Lysander raises his hands like he’s surrendering.

“No complains here”

Louis rooks on his feet, looking up towards the second floor hall, he then looks at Morena.

“Watch your step”

She gives him a hard to read smile, before she takes a deep breath and starts ascending slowly, checking each step before putting her weight on it, like she’s had to do this before, the boards growl and groan but don’t crack, the second floor makes far less sound than the first when she gets there.

“Ok, Louis, you’re next”

“Really?”

“You’re the tallest Ly, therefore you weight the most”

Lysander huffs, Louis raises an eyebrow in amusement before copying the way Morena climbed up, again the staircase protests but doesn’t give in, once upstairs he feels like he’s better grounded, time was kinder to the wood up here it seemed.

“Good, you can come up now Lysander”

Lysander moved a bit faster but still cautiously enough not to break the steps, he gives Morena a sheepish smile once he gets on the second floor, Louis feels like he’s missed something there, Morena leads the pace again, Lysander smiles as he follows her, like something bigger is happening, Louis watches him carefully, glancing at Morena a few times, but doesn’t quite understand what Lysander is looking at, the rooms are mostly empty except for the last one.

There, on cases, in the table and hanging from walls, were different types of swords and knives, the room was the best off on the house, if not for the missing window, Morena turned off the flashligh, as there was enough sunlight to see everything here, the greenery had seemed to leave this particular room alone, Louis could only wonder why.

He didn’t have much time to think about coincidences though, because right then something came through the window at high speed and the next thing he knew was that he had a knife pointed to his throat, the second was a pair of very familiar amber eyes that pierced at him for a moment before recognition started seeping in and the blade was drawn, two more sets of footsteps followed as Mercyan moved away from Louis; Nicodemus and Marianne looked like they had fallen through the woods, Louis supposed his own team didn’t look much better, the only one unscratched was the one holding a hunter knife.


	9. Weapons

Louis glares at Mercyan, who shrugged, and the worst thing was that Louis couldn’t really blame him for his actions.

“So, how did you guys get here?”

Lysander is the one to answer his question, soon he’s telling them about the whole journey here, Morena blushes whenever her name is brought up; Louis thinks it’s only fair for her to get all the credit, but he’s a bit curious about how team Stalactite ended up looking like that.

“And then you busted in and almost murdered Louis”

“I honestly have no good explanations for that”

Louis tries really hard to not punch Mercyan in the face for that one, he resists mainly because the younger still has a knife in his hands.

“And who had the brilliant idea of giving you a weapon?”

Mercyan smirks at him with that confident little glint that makes Louis want to strangle him, everyone backs down a little, it’s safe to say that their fights tend to get more physical than not, the one to break the tension is Nicodemus.

“We did, saved our lives out there, seemed like a good idea”

“You should have seen it; he practically dragged our asses here”

Lysander raises an eyebrow at Marianne, who is grinning widely.

“How come you’re completely fine then?”

Morena actually leans her head to the side when asking, Louis decides to look away and ignore her for a while, enough interactions for a good while. Mercyan has the audacity of lifting his hands and shoulders in a shrug.

“Gravity”

“What?”

Nicodemus snorts, Marianne giggles and Mercyan smiles like he won something

“Sorry, details”

“Oh! I’ll tell it!”

Mercyan makes an exaggerated bow to the side letting Marianne take the center of attention, she starts talking about snakes being oddly nice when you leave them alone, and Mercyan apparently talking to birds, the Argentinean just chuckles and Nicodemus looks amused, she then talks about the Greek, to which the mentioned straightens up, Mercyan smiles at them as Marianne swears that Nicodemus has tracking devises on his shoes and that’s why he couldn’t see the bees, now the bees are actually something Louis enjoys of the story, if anything because Mercyan groans in agitation and mutters something in Spanish, Nicodemus pats his shoulder, Marianne keeps talking about how they were saved by a weeping willow, later she talks about squirrels being awful and the fact that most houses on their side were in ruins anyway.

Mercyan was the first one to notice this one, because of course he was, and by then Nicodemus and Marianne had decided that it was better to leave the knife they found at one of the destroyed houses in his hands, something about bats that made no sense to Louis, finally she came to a part where they had been trying to break a fallen trunk  that didn’t let them go forward, Nicodemus was the one that suggested messing with the weight distribution, Mercyan was the one to actually know how to tie the ends, Marianne helped by climbing on and managing to get Nicodemus on as well, the trunk broke before Mercyan could even try to get close and the two rolled down, they were lucky Mercyan had remained in the ground because he was the one who had to stop Marianne when she kept going after Nicodemus hit a root, how they managed to climb up through the wall was a wonder.

“We’re all bursting into that pirate song every few minutes though, but it was great”

“Talking about great things, just take a good look at all of this, there are some rare objects here”

 

If one was to ask Nicodemus, he would’ve probably described his teammates as a dynamic duo, though they both had the ability to pull him along until he fell into step, Marianne was fearless out on the field, using the time to instead question why they had ended in each tricky situation, Mercyan was the one to give sarcastically accurate answers, though right now the Argentinean was a little busy going around the array of weapons like a kid on a candy shop, exclaiming things in different languages that he guesses were the names of each type of sword, he smiles as he goes over some, he finds a short one that has a wavy blade, Mercyan calls it a short Kris, he talks about the sword with exited eyes,  mention it’s in ship shape condition much to the Greek’s amusement, and then offers it to Marianne, saying the blade has the best weight and balance for someone like her, he also makes a comment about fire and water that only he seems to understand, then had the most awkward reaction ever, which was amazing in its own right because that was the first time any of them had seen Mercyan acting like that.

“The blade shape is kind of like fire so these type of blades are called flaming and it makes a lot of sense because Mar is for sea, and seas are large bodies of water, so yeah, fire and water”

Nicodemus finds himself smiling and raising an eyebrow at the same time, Mercyan has the decency of actually blushing, which is also rather rare.

“I should probably keep the weapon-enthusiast comments at bay, shouldn’t I?”

And why the hell wouldn’t awkward Mercyan be anything other than, well, Mercyan-ish … Nicodemus couldn’t come up with a better adjective, he’s pretty sure that given the made up quality of the name it was only right to make a made up adjective to it, though the Greek was glad the Argentinean couldn’t read his thoughts, he wouldn’t hear the end of it, Marianne was giving him a pointed look and Nicodemus realized that he was doomed, definitely.

Louis has this actually amused look on him, it would be the weirdest thing if Nicodemus didn’t know why it was happening exactly, Morena said something in Spanish beneath her breath that had the tone of a question and Mercyan had answered sheepishly in the same language, the only thing out of place was Lysander, the fellow Greek’s smile seemed strained, like he was walking on eggshells.

“You could keep the knowledge, and instead answer me a question”

It was rare for Louis to speak to Mercyan in any tone other that annoyed or out-right angered, Mercyan seemed to be aware of this as his eyebrows rose and his lips curved in curiosity, Nicodemus had noticed that Mercyan made up for the lack of individually moving eyebrows by making the rest of his face and gestures extremely expressive, Morena used her hands a lot as well but her face didn’t move as much, so that was definitely Mercyan being himself.

“Well, I did almost cut your throat, so fire away”

Louis seemed to be losing the amusement that embarrassed Mercyan had brought, but was still remaining calm, maybe the time away had helped him some.

“What’s your real name?”

Nicodemus understood then exactly why Lysander had been edgy, he found himself glaring at the Greek, because he knew how Mercyan was going to react, Marianne had tensed up, the hand in her new weapon was becoming pale, but Mercyan remained calm to the outside eye, it was more unnerving than if he had flinched in the slightest, Nicodemus knew how this conversation was going to go.

“Mercedes”

“Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

“You obviously see why I had to change it”

Morena was actually the one to ask the next question, by now Nicodemus had started backing up, he could see Marianne doing the same on the corner of his eye.

“Why would you be given a girl’s name?”

“Because society has a thing for letting looks decide names, apparently”

Nicodemus watched as realization hit the two people asking, saw the way Morena seemed to immediately regret her question, it was still a somewhat unsteady subject, though it was a lot better now than it had been on earlier times.

“You don’t act much like it”

Mercyan crossed his arms, a smirk making its way to his features, Nicodemus felt himself relax somewhat, he checked to see that Marianne was now back to examining her new sword with a wicked grin.

“Well, Ly is a neither but you don’t see them complaining about pronouns, do you?”

Lysander groaned, shoulders slumping and eyes finally going to the rest of them.

“A secret for a secret then?”

Mercyan raised both his hands in a sign of inevitability, Lysander nodded slowly, it was still odd how in tune they seemed to be, then again the same could be said about himself and his two team mates, he wondered if maybe now team Krypton would start acting like that as well.

“That said; two hands or one? You look like a hand and half type to me but what do I know”

“I’ll go with your suggestion”

Mercyan nods and moves to look at the swords, he stops near a particular group that’s on what looks like a place you’d put umbrellas in, rather similar to what they had back at the base.

“Cross or lasso?”

“Lasso?”

Mercyan smiles as he reaches for one that has a vine-like pattern on the handle

“Good choice”

He takes it with both hand underneath it and offer the handle to Lysander, who grabs it with both hands, one not fitting in the space, the handle seems to curve around them much like a ribbon, Mercyan lets go by moving sideways avoiding cuts, Lysander’s hold seems to tighten, it’s probably a heavy sword.

“Mor looks like she’ll do well with a machete or a sable, your pick of course”

Morena seems to think it for a moment

“I think the machete would be better”

Mercyan nods approvingly, before getting one that’s incredibly clean, Nicodemus wonders if it’ll stay like that for long, the younger of the two Argentineans holds the weapon like one would a knife, Morena seems to catch on and takes it like one as well.

Mercyan goes back to the swords, he stops for a moment before looking at Louis, he shakes his head like he’s playing a conversation in his head and for once Nicodemus is glad for the motion, he really doesn’t want to know. The sword he gives Louis is in between Marianne’s and Lysander’s on size, but looks definitely heavier by the way Mercyan handles it, the handle is one that reminds Nicodemus of knights and he fears for a moment that Mercyan will make a joke, he catches a glimpse at a design on the end of the handle, not enough to make it out but it seems to catch Louis attention as well.

“It’s two handed, so think heavy”

Louis takes it with his two hands, like the thing will make him fall otherwise, and manages to lift it up to analyze it, he gives Mercyan an odd look that the dyed Argentinean just shrugs at, Nicodemus finds a pair of amber eyes looking at him then.

“You are definitely a one hand, but I’m stuck between curved or no, so you get to decide that”

Nicodemus is pretty sure that there’s a joke he’s missing when he picks the normal one, it’s in the way Mercyan’s lips twitch upwards the slightest bit, and his eyes shine with mirth, he still hands him the sword without making a single comment, which Nicodemus whishes he would do just so he could give a proper comeback, instead of just rolling his eyes at him.

“That leaves-

Mercyan freezes up and for a moment Nicodemus fears that there might be something else in the room, but instead the younger licks his lips nervously, as he moves a little further into the collection, it only seems right that the sword to catch his attention would be one of the few on crystal cases, the blade is curved, widening in the middle and thinning of the ends, the handle is gold, with carved drawings of what looks like some sort of plant, it looks like a pirate sword and all things considered, it could very well be one, or at least a copy. Mercyan seems weary as he breaks the glass with the blunt end of his knife, but he takes the sword like it’ll break and once out of the case he turns it so that it catches light to analyze it, it’s one of the few times any of them had seen him being this quiet, there’s a look of wonder on his entire face as he finally holds it by the handle and positions himself the way captain Shean taught them, a grin finally breaking onto his face.

“You look like a pirate”

It leaves his mouth without much though, the star struck Argentinean gives him a wild grin, one that makes him look like a madman; Nicodemus finds everything oddly fitting to the person in front of him.

“That aside, we should probably get as many of these in our bags as possible, we can get them down from the side we climbed through”

Marianne gets to work with a simple nod, Nicodemus follows close; Mercyan gives team Krypton one last pointed look before joining them. It takes Louis grumbling under his breath in what has to be French for the last three trainees to start helping them.

The trail back was a long and slow one, they took the way team Krypton had taken there, it would take them more time but it seemed much safer, they walked with Louis in the front and Mercyan in the back to avoid conflict, Marianne and Morena stayed in the middle exchanging stories and making guesses at what sound was what that had Mercyan chuckling every now and then though he had yet to correct them, Nicodemus walked besides the male Argentinean while Lysander was closer to Louis, the shorter of the two kept glancing at the other from time to time and Nicodemus was sure it was wrecking Lysander’s nerves.

They arrived to a small town after a rather long walk, Mercyan took the lead then, being more on his element, he offered getting a higher view a few times, signaling at particular buildings, the rest only agreed the last time. He didn’t find the way to the pod that had taken them there, or rather couldn’t tell which one it was, but he found a small military settlement on the outskirts, they walked there with renewed energies and a far more amicable air. Nicodemus decided that maybe this group wouldn’t do so bad working all together, he actually wondered what that would be like and whether or not one of them would take charge, he found his eyes moving to the person most likely to do so, the Greek allowed himself to smile hopefully, maybe that would be a good thing.


	10. Normalcy

They were picked at the settlement by Iran and Alistair, who were in charge of their group apparently, Alistair joked around with the soldiers who seemed to be very amused at their group when they got there, which Mercyan took in stride and kept it going much to the surprise of the soldiers who were now threatening to keep the Argentinean there, Louis asked them to please do so, to which Mercyan made a comment on how you couldn’t win them all, Lysander though it was the friendliest interaction out of the two.

Lysander noticed that both Morena and Mercyan talked more with his hands than with their mouths, something they were being reminded of right now as the female Argentinean had slipped herself in the middle of the discussion between Mercyan and Louis, Nicodemus followed close but he stayed at Mercyan’s side, while Morena was literally standing in between them, Lysander caught Louis fighting a few smiles here and there.

“It’s good to see those two finally getting along”

Lysander was aware of being the tallest of the group, but for someone that was only nineteen, Marianne was very tall as well, she had grown to surpass Morena, who was older, and would probably be the same height as Mercyan when she got older, though the Argentinean was growing too, at a slower pace but still noticeable if one really looked, especially when standing beside the soldiers, all grown men, it was obvious that he would be quite tall, Nicodemus and Louis weren’t saved from the effects of time either, Morena seemed to be losing the race and would probably wind up the shortest of them all, but Lysander didn’t think it would matter.

Something had changed with the first survival test, it weighted heavy on the shared pod as they headed back, as the two teams sat facing each other, with Mercyan and Louis on two different ends, and the male Argentinean fell asleep on Nicodemus, it was on how both Nicodemus and Marianne were eyeing the French in warning.

Lysander was the one to explain that Mercyan had nightmares, Marianne chimed in with the fact that the Argentinean was always the first to wake up and the last to go to bed, Nicodemus told them of his insistence to be on look out all the nights, until they finally got it out of him. Lysander hadn’t noticed the eye bags before and they were sure neither of their team mates had either.

After that the rest of the trip was spent in silence, Nicodemus and Marianne decided to join Mercyan and now the French girl was resting on the free shoulder of the Greek, who didn’t seem faced with his position, though his head ended falling on Mercyan’s at a particularly inclined movement of the pod, Lysander found the scene adorable, though it would be better to keep that thought to themselves; it was good to see Mercyan getting some rest, nonetheless.

Seeing Mercyan acting dozy with sleep was rather interesting, he mumbled a few things in Spanish, Morena said he was saying odd things with little to no sense; she glanced at Louis and said that it was better left not translated, Nicodemus had to hold him to walk and Mercyan thanked him in at least three different languages, which seemed to amuse the Greek, Marianne said that Mercyan could only say hello and thanks in any language that wasn’t English, French or Spanish, and it was odd as hell, but also very cool.

“I don’t really know Greek, or whatever the language of Egypt is called, or Hebrew, or anything from Africa”

“That’s still an awful lot of languages though”

“It’s not that many, I swear”

“You’re not going to win against her Mer, give up”

“I’m calling a mutiny; you two are complotting against me”

The two roll their eyes and push Mercyan further into the base, Lysander opens the door to the room for them, they throw Mercyan on his bed, he groans but doesn’t move, Marianne quips with a good dreams and skips away.

“Do try to sleep please”

Mercyan lets out another groan and Nicodemus leaves sighing, Lysander makes themself comfortable on their own bed, they glance at Mercyan, who lifts his head slightly to look back, tired amber eyes suggesting a question.

“Lazy day, then?”

Mercyan chuckled in exhaustion

“Definitely lazy day”

 

Marianne sat besides Nicodemus, both comparing their swords, Morena was a bit further making sure Louis didn’t overwork himself practicing with his new sword. The room was quiet, and Marianne was willing to bet this would be a common occurrence whenever they came from survival training, she looked at Nicodemus, who was holding his sword the way Mercyan had grabbed it when they first got the weapon, one hand below the handle and one below the blade, he seemed to be deep in thought.

The two missing trainees were giving no signs of reappearing at any moment, which was a good thing since Mercyan probably would need someone to keep him in bed, the nightmares had been a surprise, though Nicodemus was the one waking him up when it happened, Marianne had been on look out and only saw them both wide awake, Mercyan holding onto Nicodemus for dear life, the Greek explained to her and she sat down with him to help calm the Argentinean.

“Do you really think they’re just nightmares?”

 Marianne should have expected Nicodemus to talk about it now that they were mostly alone.

“I think we all have our own demons, but Mer’s are more showy, as is he generally”

Nicodemus lets go of a small smile, the kind that were apparently reserved for her and Mercyan, Marianne smiles back.

“Do you think we should tell him about the marks?”

Marianne puts a hand on her arm, covered by her uniform jacket, she denies with her head.

“I don’t think anyone else has had them appear yet”

Nicodemus puts a hand on his right side, he glances around before chuckling.

“Yes, no, best not give him something to use as nickname fuel”

Marianne laughed at that, it sounded so Mercyan-like. At first she didn’t quite know what to think of the Greek, though she could tell he knew, it was good to talk with someone about the marks, since Lysander was in a different team, she wanted to tell Mercyan about it, she was sure the Argentinean would believe her, but she wasn’t sure what the elder would do with the information, hopefully just nickname everyone and nothing else.

Marianne wondered when the others would get their own marks, she wondered if maybe Lysander already had theirs, or maybe Morena, it was difficult to tell with the uniforms, she could be sure Louis hadn’t gotten his yet, the same way she had known something was special about this particular group of people, this team of six, with different pasts, different provenances, and, like she had told Nicodemus, their own demons. Marianne was weary that those demons would come haunt them, leaving burnt marks, scars, heavy souls, behind; she was worried that maybe they would be their kingdom come.

The young woman stood then, seeing Louis and Morena had long since stopped practicing, her dark chocolate eyes locked into sky blue ones, she smiled and walked confidently.

“Do you still have energy?”

French felt comforting in her lips and seemed to brush Louis in just the right way for him to smile passively and fall into stance.

“Of course”

She positioned herself, holding her blade the way Mercyan had indicated to her during one of the training sessions, wondering for a moment if maybe sword practice would be the only moment in which Louis would listen to Mercyan at all.

The fight started simple, just them circling around each other and taking turns to strike and counter, then Marianne became restless, used to practice with Lysander who she often had to go all out with to balance the height difference, she started moving faster finding the sword in her hands light and flexible, moving far better than the one she was used to, Louis managed to keep up, probably thanks to his own sword and the practice he was used to, which consisted on dealing with Mercyan avoiding attacks instead of blocking them, Marianne was sure the Argentinean did it more to try seeing if he could than to actually bother the French, she had watched carefully, and when Louis strode forward she moved to the side and used the curves of her blade to move the blade the opposite way, Louis stumbled and she could use his momentum to make him trip with another movement of her sword, she twirled around him as he fell and had him pinned with her sword by the time he had managed to start standing, she stepped away and helped him on his feet.

“He’s a bad influence”

The French came out melodic and breathless out of Louis, he had an irritated look on his face, for a moment Marianne understood why Mercyan pushed him so much.

“Oh, I believe he’s a great influence, the best actually”

Louis rolled his eyes but said nothing more; Marianne felt herself grinning as she went back to Nicodemus who laughed at her expression.

“You look like a certain Argentinean I know”

She stuck giggled at the comment, glancing at her sword for a moment before making herself as tall as possible and raised her sword the way she saw Mercyan hold his.

“I feel so empowered”

“Mer would have a field day if he heard you say that”

“You pay a lot of attention to him”

“Says the girl that’s using his fighting techniques against Louis”

Marianne laughed at that, finally sitting back down at his side.

“Do you think they know? Our superiors I mean”

Nicodemus gave her a hard look, glanced around and then looked back at her.

“I’m certain they do, what worries me is what they’ll do if someone doesn’t fit the bill”

Marianne nodded, her eyes moving to the hall that leaded to their rooms, she hoped Mercyan would get some rest, and that Lysander would keep him company, the last thing any of them needed was to be left alone, not with everything that was at stake.


	11. Quiet

Noemi Shean was not one to believe in superstitions, but the current situation of the earth was enough to make anyone question their beliefs, and considering her position as the person in charge of keeping track of the advance of the trainees of project MAST, it was only due time.

She had kept an eye on all of the trainees, analyzing their potential; frankly she had been interested on how much a group of untrained people were capable of, they each had their own strengths, according to Iran and Alistair, but some impressed her more than others.

They had given her the records of each one of them, of course, as it made it easier to group them that way, there was a particular duo she worried about, so she had put them together, they would have enough in common, though as for right now the interaction of that group was still just tentative at best. The other group had fallen together with an intriguing ease, mostly due to one particular member, an Argentinean that seemed to have an easy time winning people over, though the French girl and the Greek boy seemed to have found something to bond over as all three of them got along quite nicely.

Noemi could tell that the marks were starting to appear, as it was meant to happen, she still ignored how the agency had managed to get the right people in the project, but she hardly ever knew how anything worked with them, in that sense she was just as lost as the trainees would be once they finally talked about it, she could only watch and hope that the group wouldn’t have to dismantle, right now when it was starting to take shape.

 

Nicodemus wasn’t surprised when he found Mercyan hanging upside down from a banister first thing in the morning; amber eyes seemed to be filled with mirth as they met with his own grey ones.

“I don’t have answers”

Nicodemus knew the other would start laughing any minute now and simply rolled his eyes, Mercyan acted like a drunken man whenever he did this.

“Get down from there, you’re not a bat”

Mercyan chuckles, which sends him into a laughing fit as predicted, Nicodemus has to remind himself that Mercyan practices parkour when the Argentinean drops his hands to hold his stomach, his legs being the only thing keeping him from stumbling to the ground, once he calmed down he held a hand in a gesture that he had explained meant for others to wait and swung back to a right side up position before letting himself fall through the bars in one swift movement; Nicodemus steps closer to hold Mercyan when he stumbles forward.

“Blood rush”

The Greek nods, wondering how long Mercyan had been in that position and what exactly was the benefit from hanging upside down in what had to be an uncomfortable place.

“Do you ever sleep?”

“I have nightmares Gris, what’s your excuse?”

“Louis was snoring”

“Ha! That’s rich!”

“What does ‘gris’ mean?”

“Gray, for your eyes”

Nicodemus nodded in understandment, Mercyan tended to look at people straight in the eyes when speaking to them, something that was spreading around as it seemed that people listened more when one did so. Mercyan climbed on another of the training devices, Nicodemus only knew the name of so many in English, and patted the spot besides him; Nicodemus sighed and moved to join him.

“Something’s on your mind, I can tell”

Nicodemus tried not to panic, feeling the prickling sensation in his hand that wanted to cover the mark on his chest, a mark that Mercyan couldn’t see anyway, he did have something to ask the Argentinean though; hopefully it would appease his curiosity.

“What do you believe in, I mean, I heard you swear to the stars a few times”

“Ah, that”

Mercyan let out a chuckle, it sounded a bit relieved if Nicodemus was to pin point, though about what he didn’t know.

“I believe in the stars, plain and simple, they’re always there and probably been there longer than our species, even if most of them are dead by now”

Nicodemus glanced at Mercyan, who had a faraway look, face leaning back as if he was looking at the sky they couldn’t see down here.

“But mostly, because stars don’t care about what the earth does, they live their own lives and light up the universe for however long, I guess I just wanted that kind of freedom”

The Argentinean had hard to read look in his face, his amber eyes looking dim as if seeing something that Nicodemus couldn’t.

“That does sound like you, living your own way but still lighting up everything around you”

He glanced away for a moment, before returning and meeting with brighter amber eyes, a soft smile on a face that had been tanner when they had first met.

“Does that make us a constellation?”

“If you want to think it that way”

Mercyan broke into laughter, bright and loud, it was a contagious sound and Nicodemus found himself smiling in amusement while watching the Argentinean, a cough caught his attention.

“Isn’t it too early for you two to be making so much noise?”

Marianne would have made a better threat if she hadn’t been smiling softly at them, Nicodemus actually grinned at her, following after Mercyan when the other jumped out of his perch.

“Race you down to the dining room”

Nicodemus witnessed as Marianne’s smile turned into a grin and her eyes gleamed at the challenge, Mercyan looked at him with the most mischievous smile he had ever seen.

“You’re on”

Nicodemus was nowhere near surprised at the laugh that broke out of his chest as the three of them started running the halls of the base to get breakfast; they passed a sleepy looking Morena on the way, the female Argentinean just shook her head at them before hiding a yawn behind a still copper skinned hand, so that was a natural color, good to know.

Marianne was the winner, Mercyan and Nicodemus tied for second place according to an amused looking Alistair, the soldier then told them to walk around a bit before sitting down and wait another while before eating anything, Nicodemus felt like a child when joining Mercyan and Marianne in a proper salute as they said ‘yes sir’.

“So, what woke you up this early?”

“My roommate was having trouble breathing”

Mercyan giggled, it was odd to even think it but Nicodemus couldn’t refer to that sound as anything else, he shoved the Argentinean lightly, to which he earned a stuck out tongue, he was such a kid.

“What about you?”

“I’m a bit of an early bird, though not as much as our magpie boy”

“Glad to know I’m not the only one nicknaming people”

“You’re contagious”

Mercyan smirked, actually pulled the right side of his mouth in a way that could only be described as a smirk, amber orbs alight with something akin to pride, he puffed up in a very bird like manner and Nicodemus couldn’t help but chuckle at him.

They finally sat down, joining Morena who was nursing a cup of tea, they waited as advised, saying hello to Lysander when they walked in to join them on the table.

“Team Stalactite seems to be made of early risers today”

“They have way too much energy for this hour if you ask me”

“Stars Mor, you sound like Louis”

Morena groans and takes a large sip of her tea, letting out a sigh.

“Let me finish my cup and I’ll be back to normal”

“You got up rather early as well”

“I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

Morena gave her a tired but otherwise warm smile before shaking her head no, Marianne smiled back though Nicodemus could tell she was still a bit weary.

Nicodemus stood up and was surprised when Mercyan followed him to get breakfast, generally opting to just drinking some water, this time he got some juice and a toast, raising his two dark brown eyebrows at Nicodemus, eyes asking ‘what?’.

“You’re eating breakfast?”

Mercyan lifts hiss shoulders with an easy smile before biting on his bare toast and turning around to stride to the table, it seems Louis has joined them, the French only grunts at Mercyan and Nicodemus decides that it’ll be a good day.

“We’re all such responsible people”

“Shut up Ghesh”

Or maybe not, who was Nicodemus to decide when those two got along, though Mercyan was a lot milder since their little road trip, the Argentinean leans his head into the table and stretches his arms on the table while keeping eye contact with Louis.

“Come on, I’m dying to try my new sword”

The French rolls his eyes, Mercyan lets out an actual whine; he then turns his head to Nicodemus with a look of distress.

“Practice with me Gris, please?”

Nicodemus lets out a sigh though he feels a small smile forming at the ridiculous Argentinean at his side.

“Fine”

Mercyan practically beams at him, finally lifting himself from the table and going back to working on his bare toast and what Nicodemus is pretty sure is apple juice, he’s done questioning anything the other does for today, and maybe a few more days as well.

 

Noemi watched at the trainees worked with their newly acquired weapons, the Argentinean boy seemed to have quite the good judgment for them, as the movements were swifter; they were also more sure, which meant that this group trusted that judgment, that was always a good thing.

Ever since the survival training the two teams had started spending more time as teams, even coming up with names to identify themselves as unities, though she could notice the two teams intermingling when it mattered, working as a whole, guided by one of two pointers that generally collided with each other, today, however, the two boys were practicing with different partners, the Argentinean picking the Greek guy from his team, the French going against the other one as the two females were sparing together.

“Watch your step Serez, Lyons is used to putting more weight on her attacks than you”

“Yes Ma’am”

“Bellot Vryzas isn’t Ghesh but he can still counter you easily”

“Thanks Ma’am”

“Ghesh, keep your eyes on your opponent”

“Sorry”

Mirth; that young man seemed to be enjoying himself, the Greek was fighting a grin of his own, obviously enjoying the fight, good, the two would work well together. The French guy was finally fighting on even ground with the other Greek, the last pair was also falling into step, to every deflection the Argentinean girl would step back only to try a different approach and not letting the French girl use them to her advantage. Team stalactite, if her memory didn’t fail her, seemed to be made by three idiots who liked a good fight, while the other team seemed to enable such a thing, a good dynamic so far, but now she would have to keep an eye on a particular duo jut to make sure they didn’t overwork themselves, she sighed deeply before correcting a few more things, they were getting better, and she hoped they would be ready.


	12. Pour your heart

Their first mission came after a week in which they learned skills of survival, and how to ask for help from other soldiers that would be on the field with them. The mission was to help moving people to a safer location; they were divided in the two teams as it seemed to be the norm.

All things considered it sounded like a good first mission, they all had gotten sheaths for their swords, their weight having become something familiar and comforting; the problem was that as soon as the location was mentioned Mercyan had tensed up and hadn’t stopped shifting since, Marianne was worried and she knew Nicodemus was too, but try as they might they couldn’t get it out of him, she was pretty sure she heard him muttering in Spanish to himself, as if reassuring himself about something, but he would just brush it off as excitement to being somewhere he recognized, that was the most they could get out of him, and Nicodemus did it when they had another early morning, so Mercyan was still a bit sleepy.

It started normally enough, the two teams were sent in separated pods, the French girl was hoping that Mercyan would spill when it was just the three of them, Lysander hadn’t gotten anything, Morena said that he avoided her altogether and Louis was being his usual self, though the French did notice something wrong with the Argentinean, asking about it and getting riled up by Mercyan, but at least he cared to find out.

Mercyan was currently shifting on his seat, eyes strained on the window, Marianne only knew the Argentinean for so long but she could still tell he was scared of something, Nicodemus had his eyes on him as well, the French teen decided that enough was enough.

“Ok, you’re producing an earthquake while on a pod, spill before the lines give up on us”

“The cables aren’t that weak”

“Mercyan”

The Argentinean flinched and looked at Nicodemus; the Greek simply crossed his arms.

“I’m with her, keeping it to yourself is obviously not healthy”

Mercyan lets out a whine, of all things, before he bends just so his arms are barely touching the floor, at any other moment Marianne would have found this hilarious, he groans a little down there before he gives a long sigh and straights himself.

“Just… don’t make fun of me”

There was something extremely human about Mercyan looking this flustered, this meek, and it took the sight for Marianne to realize she had been looking at him as though he was an ethereal being, when the Argentinean was just a young man, one that was shaking like the world had decided to collapse on him.

“There’s someone back there, someone I would prefer not to meet, and sure I know the chances are pretty low but I have the worst luck ever when it comes to this sort of thing”

The way the voice changes pitches and volumes as the still lightly tanned hands make wild motions in the air reminds Marianne of an orchestrator, only much more frustrated and afraid, like Mercyan was trying to guide the requiem of a less than liked figure.

“What did they do to you?”

Marianne should have been surprised by Nicodemus, she blamed him not being the prying type for that one, but the Greek had been affected by the Argentinean’s mood, not that the rest of the group hadn’t been too but Nicodemus seemed to be a bit more edgy.

“Depends, do you want the long or the short version”

The tone was melodic but bittersweet, much like a singing bird trapped in a cage.

“Both”

 Amber eyes were heavy as they glanced between grey and coffee brown ones; annoyance was the first emotion to seep through.

“The short version is that he wanted Mercy instead of Mer”

Marianne saw Nicodemus still on the corner of her eye, Mercyan’s face then morphed into a look of utter betrayal and she was glad when her hand wasn’t the only one reaching out, Mercyan let out a dry chuckle at them.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve told you I practice parkour, been at it since I was thirteen, there was a small group back home, nice enough people, or at least most”

His hands were as cold as the metal of a sword, any other time Marianne would have found that extremely fitting, but as they shook so noticeably she couldn’t bring herself to.

“And when you’re risking your life on the highest part of a city as crowded in buildings as CABA you sort of end up trusting the people who tell you where to step and which way to turn so you don’t plummet to your death, and you might end up opening your heart to them, it happens”

His voice seemed to become increasingly annoyed as he spoke, his gestures wild enough to move the two hands that were holding him, Marianne smiled sadly at how amusing it would’ve been in any other situation.

“And at first you’re just relieved to get it out your chest, they all seem incredibly accepting, someone even jokes around that you’re still manlier than most of the guys present, everyone laughs and you feel like maybe you can take over the world”

He closes his eyes for a moment, there’s something mixed with the regret there, like the Argentinean is trying to concentrate on the ones who were honest about it.

“But then you get in over your head, you become closer with someone, you don’t think much of it, until it’s too late and they turn into the demons you were told you would find”

There are a few stray tears falling, Mercyan cries quietly, his voice becoming softer and strained, Marianne feels a rage she can recognize, sees it in the hard grey gaze that’s set on Mercyan at her side.

“I was never one to run away, but that day I fleeted like a spooked bird, I kept away from the group grounds as much as I could but I couldn’t stop running the rooftops of CABA down, eventually I run into one of them, they told me he had moved here, I have family here you know? People I want to see, but as soon as the thought of meeting him again crosses my mind… well, if I had wings I would have been long gone by now”

Nicodemus stood up and crossed the pod to sit besides Mercyan, the Argentinean blinked at him owlishly, Marianne understood and followed suit, sitting on the other side, damp amber eyes moved from one to the other and Mercyan let out a choked chuckle.

“I’m pretty convinced I don’t deserve you two”

“Shut up Mer”

“Yes, let us smother you”

A laugh escaped the Argentinean, disbelief and melancholy intertwined in a way that told them he was better, the small smile actually stayed this time, shy and a bit strained, but real enough to be relieving, still, Marianne felt like she would kill this mystery guy given the chance, she was also sure Nicodemus was having similar thoughts despite the calm smile on his mouth and the relief in his eyes.

The rest of the trip was spent in a relaxed silence as Mercyan leaned on Nicodemus and played with Marianne’s hand, a calm expression on his face as he told her that she was getting blisters from using her hands so much, that they still were much smoother than his own, which Marianne noticed were still cold, when she asked he just said it would be odd for his hands to be hot and to worry if that ever happened, which had Marianne in fits of giggles as Mercyan made melodramatic expressions, she caught Nicodemus smiling softly at them in the corner of her eye, they were okay.

 

The air was dry but much cleaner than in other cities, Marianne could tell, the ground more green than pavement, it felt like one of those neighborhoods you’d see on old American shows, with emphasis on the word old, the place looked like it had been frozen in time, but there was also something entirely Argentinean about it, it hung loosely in the air and reminded Marianne of the easy going attitude of Mercyan and the much more reserved one of Morena, all in one go.

 “It’s very quiet”

 “My mom lived here when she was young, her family is still here, I haven’t seen them in a while, think they’ll recognize me?”

Marianne bites her lips; Nicodemus puts a hand on Mercyan’s shoulder, something unreadable in his expression

“They’re your family, I’m sure they will”

Mercyan smiles at him, Marianne takes that moment to find the soldier on charge of them, a man that looks identical to Iran stands beside a chubby woman that makes Marianne feel very fragile, the woman has olive skin, a tone lighter than Morena’s, her hair is a nice brown that reminds the French girl of wood, and her eyes are so dark she could almost say they’re black, she’s tall compared to the man, who Marianne knows isn’t Iran just because of his eyes, the man is called Rhamnee and admits to being Iran’s twin when Mercyan asks about it, the fact that he does is oddly reassuring, the woman is called Aoife and has a very warm smile for a soldier.

They brief them on the situation of the city, it isn’t exactly on danger just yet but the chances of it reaching that point are high, they’ve upped the security and had prepared people for the evacuation, this is mostly to test their ability to handle a big crowd, explains Aoife, Rhamnee tells them about particular citizens making a bit of a fuss but nothing major, Marianne’s coffee brown eyes meet Nicodemus’ grey ones, and then they both look at Mercyan in worry that the Argentinean has reached the same conclusion than them, but if he has Mercyan doesn’t let it show much, his confident smile has been missing throughout the whole conversation and Marianne doesn’t think the two elder soldiers have noticed.

 

They meet the group they have to help out of the city, Mercyan had to play translator, his smile finally stretching into the confident grin Marianne was more used to, hands moving in way that seemed extremely inviting, and even though Marianne has no knowledge of Spanish, she still believes she can somehow understand what he’s expressing. Then, a young woman from the audience stepped up, her skin quite pale, her hair black and her eyes a bright green color, she looked a bit star-struck.

“Mer?”

Her voice wasn’t loud, but after the speech in Spanish, the word resounded in Marianne’s ears, Mercyan looked both exited and terrified at the same time, it was enough for Marianne to know that this girl was important.

“Neri” 

She smiled, a warm curve of the lips that was somewhat similar to the one Mercyan had sometimes, when he was particularly content, she brought him into a hug and the tension abandoned the Argentinean as quickly as it had appeared, he hugged back, a grin trying to split his face in two, he pulled her to where Marianne was standing with Nicodemus.

“Mar, Gris, I would like to introduce you to the best cousin ever, Miss Nerean Benterwide”

Marianne smiled happily at her; it was good to see that Mercyan’s family was ok, that at least one of them recognized him.

“I’m Marianne Lyons, pleasure to meet you”

She offered her hand, unsure how Argentineans greeted strangers; the girl just giggled but shook her hand firmly.

“I’m Nicodemus Kokkalis”

Nerean shakes his hand too, still smiling like she finds this silly, Mercyan has a hand covering his mouth but his eyes gleam in mirth, Marianne considers it could be much worse.

“I thought there were six in the project?”

Her voice is melodic but heavy with accent; the words feel dull around the edges, it’s odd comparing it to Mercyan’s English, which has been accent-less from day one, it’s almost hard to remember he doesn’t actually speak it as a first language.

“Team krypton will join us at the send off”

“Did you come up with that?”

“Maybe”

Nerean rolls her eyes, an amused smile on her lips; Mercyan raises his hands in defense.

“Well, if they’re anything like you two then I might just join the army”

“Stars above”

Mercyan has a hand pinching the bridge of his nose, a gesture Marianne is more familiar with, Nerean smirks in that particular way that wipes away any doubt the two could have of her being related to the Argentinean.

“Ghesh, we have to start moving”

“Yes Ma’am”

He makes an exaggerated nod to Nerean and goes to the two elder soldiers, the female Argentinean, Marianne is pretty sure she is, smiles mysteriously at them.

“So, how do you like my cousin?”

Marianne grins at that, she seems like a good person, she’s eyeing Nicodemus a bit more than her but the French girl can guess why.

“He’s very nice to talk with”

“Mercyan is a people magnet, there’s only one person in the group that doesn’t like him”

“That sounds like him alright, he has a big heart but he can be annoying as hell”

“Talking about something interesting?”

“I was hoping to get some material here, but it seems your team likes you”

“Ah, I’m not an interesting subject Neri, you should know better”

“I really should”

“Anyway, you should go with the crowd, we’re heading to the retrieval spot so you can all get out of this place”

Nerean makes a mock salute that has Mercyan rolling his eyes before scurrying back to the group of people, Mercyan turns once more but this time signs for them to follow him. They begin a long track, making sure none gets left behind, that everyone makes it to the station, where they’ll be sent to a safer location via mass-pods, which are used with larger numbers of people than normal pods, and the place where they’ll regroup with the rest of their team, there’s a higher chance of Mercyan meeting with a less than likeable character, if Marianne and Nicodemus tense a bit then they don’t notice it at all.


	13. The Argentinean and the French

When they saw team Krypton, and Marianne still had problems not laughing at the name, they were talking with a group of people in loose fitting clothing that was covered in paint of different colors, and were all built for movement, Mercyan looked a bit paler and she knew problem was about to ensue.

Marianne realized, as they approached the group and more faces were turning towards them, that being in a team with Mercyan Ghesh while being in an Argentinean city he knew of, was just a recipe for trouble, and she wouldn’t have had it any other way, she was sure Nicodemus shared the feeling.

Once they finally were at talking distance one of the strangers approached them, a tallish guy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes, he had a cocky smile in his face and Marianne wondered, as she felt her fists clenching, if this is how Louis felt when he first met Mercyan, if so, she owed her fellow French an apology, she really wanted to knock this guy out and he hadn’t even opened his mouth.

“Ah, little Mercy, I overheard you lucked out and got to the military and whatever project”

“Agustin”

“It’s kinda hard to believe, really, miss ‘I’ll become something great’ was actually stupid enough to enter such a thing”

“Yeesh, I forgot what a pain in the ass you were”

“You would know about that, wouldn’t you?”

“Look here you sorry excuse for a jerk…”

“Whoa, easy there pretty face, you in your time of the month?”

Mercyan couldn’t retort because the guy was being punched square in the face, before falling unceremoniously to the ground, Louis simply cleaned his hand like he had touched something gross, Mercyan had the decency to look impressed, Marianne decided he liked Louis a lot more right now.

“Friend of yours?”

“More like an ex”

“You dated that?”

“Not my smartest decision, but I was fourteen”

“I don’t even want to ask”

“You’ll learn about it regardless, but what’s with these other people?”

Morena stepped in, not quite sure whether to interfere or not, the two weren’t exactly fighting.

“They apparently heard about you from your old team mates”

“Parkour is a great way to meet people it seems”

Lysander was smiling in what seemed like amusement, Mercyan chuckled, giving a nod to Louis, short and quick, before walking to the elder Greek, Marianne approached Louis just in time to see a small unbelieving smile appear on him.

“I sense a friendship forming”

“Fermez la bouche”

Marianne raised her hands in what she knew meant surrender, eyebrows raised in mock, Louis rolled his eyes, Nicodemus walked to Mercyan and Lysander, sparing Louis a grateful nod, Marianne put her hands down smiling.

“Merci”

That said she walked to join the other three, missing the look of confusion on Louis’ face.

“I don’t think team Stalactite liked that guy much, you’re in their good book”

Louis looked at Morena, who was smiling warmly, she gave a nod much like Mercyan had and started heading towards everyone else, stopping for a moment.

“You’re going to join us?”

Louis couldn’t help the tiny smile.

“Of course”

 

On the trip back, Mercyan repeated his little story, this time with the help of Marianne, and the support of Nicodemus, who had been quiet most of the day and seemed to have something on his head, Louis thought it was very like him to still hold Mercyan like he was made of glass despite this, the French also felt a lot better about knocking a complete stranger out, as badly as Mercyan and him got along, there were some things that were simply wrong, they actually slept the rest of the trip, not having noticed how long it had been the first time, a con of traveling in pod.

Thankfully they’re all awake enough when they get to the base not to make fools of themselves, Lysander is the one to share the tale on Morena having to work as their translator, they then get into a discussion with Marianne about whether this might be the real reason behind the way teams are divided into one from each country, Mercyan walks a little slower than normal, giving Louis pointed looks every now and then.

“What?”

“Just… thank you”

The Argentinean has the decency of looking bashful as he hurries his steps, sighing in what looks entirely like relief once he’s walking a bit further ahead, by Nicodemus’ side, who glances at him in amusement, Louis doesn’t know what to make of that, then again, he doesn’t quite understand Mercyan Ghesh all that much, it downs on him like something he knew but tried not to pay attention to, that everyone else seems to be in sync with the Argentinean, it worries him for the very first time, as he watches him stride forward, marking the pace, Louis finds his eyes wandering to Morena, she seems to sense this as she looks his way, curious, he then looks at Lysander, who turns and flashes him a confused grin, it’s ridiculous enough that Louis feels himself calming down, he’s at least part of this team.

The hall finally opened up to the training grounds, where the four soldiers took their leave, it was easier to tell Rhamnee and Iran apart when the twins were together, Alistair walking between them and Aoife walks a little slower, keeping an eye on them, it’s obvious that she’s the oldest when they’re all standing there, even if she’s a bit shorter than Alistair.

Mercyan, Nicodemus and Marianne go to the climbing wall, looking restless, Morena heads for the banister, Lysander follows closely, Louis decided to go there as well, he noticed that the Argentinean didn’t give herself enough impulse when hanging from the bars, as if afraid to knocking herself on the other side, which seems like a ridiculous idea in its own right.

“Push yourself forward when moving from bar to bar, if you hesitate for too long you’ll end up falling”

She does as told, jumping down when she reaches the other end, a smile drawing itself on her features, Louis notes that she has freckles, they are evident in the light of the base, he looks away and heads for some other thing to do, He doesn’t see the pointed looks from Lysander, he doesn’t need that right now, nor the confused look in Morena’s face, nor the way she’ll look at Lysander for answers, nor the way Lysander just waves his hand in a gesture she told them meant to not worry about something, Louis just busies himself on punching the bag, and trying to keep his eyes wandering back to the other two, soon Marianne walks to him, two swords in her hands, one belonging to him, if he smiles gratefully at his fellow French then nobody else needs to know.

Marianne is a tricky fighter, she uses what she learns from watching and listening to Mercyan against him, until it proves to be too easy for Louis to counter, then she starts fighting differently, moving wildly and using the curves of her sword to her advantage, if he grins at her then he can hardly be blamed.

Louis actually calls a few things on Marianne’s new technique, he refuses to acknowledge the fact that he learned most from Mercyan correcting him midlist fighting, the Argentinean seems to be fighting Lysander, which means Nicodemus and Morena are back to their original fighting partners, if Louis finds himself feeling better at seeing Lysander struggle against Mercyan, then he has only half the mind to mind Marianne noticing, it’s only right.


	14. Those marked by fate

Where one sees themselves in the future, where one wants to be, what one wants to do, these are the questions everyone asks, and these are the questions he had never been able to answer.

It wasn’t that Mercyan didn’t have dreams, rather that they were far to farfetched in his own head, what he wanted clashed with what he needed, yet when the chance appeared to maybe put an end to his aimless way of living, despite everything in him, he took it, he talked to his dad, trained more than he ever had, passed his own tests, and typed his identity on a machine, the numbers familiar as he put them down, as he was leaving he met a pair of toffee brown eyes and was filled with a sense of finality, he took the long route back, needed to clear his head.

Now, as expected, the first obstacle appeared in his way, it stood tall and unmovable, distancing him from the people he had started to consider his friends like someone had decided to open an abyss at the floor, but this one wasn’t the kind he could jump across of.

It was kind of ironic, if he was being honest, he had always believed in fate, in something else besides what was known, things one would read in books and brush aside, yet here was the proof, and here was he, being pulled aside.

Louis was the first one to voice it out, which wasn’t much of a surprise, he had discovered a hedgehog in his right wrist, climbing upwards but looking back, it was very much like a tattoo, Morena had hers in her ankle, a wolf that wrapped itself around the surface of skin, Lysander’s was in their stomach, a cat stretching in the left side, and up to there Mercyan was ok, he could deal with this, he assured himself, then Marianne and Nicodemus showed theirs and he knew he was doomed, Marianne’s was in her left arm, almost to the shoulder, a red lizard in a position much like Louis’ hedgehog, and Nicodemus had his right on his heart, a rampaging horse, and in any other moment, Mercyan would have thought it beautiful, one of those huge Scottish horses, the detail was breathtaking. And then there was Mercyan himself, skin paling with each day he spent away from the sun, sparely freckled but otherwise unmarked, standing in a situation that he knew shouldn’t have been familiar nor expected, but it was and it terrified him.

 He bit his lip, took a good deep breath, and smiled, let himself be amazed by how realistic the marks were, how life like, joked on how very fitting of a story it was, and how dare his team mates had hidden this from him, hands flying knowingly like he has done this a hundred times, he’s used to pretending, he can do this, he can deal with this.

There are grey eyes on him, Mercyan refuses to meet his gaze, there had to be someone, of course, there was always someone, wasn’t there? And here’s what happened last time, so Mercyan clenches his fist in his pockets and looks up, but the eyes he meets aren’t the ones he expects for once, Nicodemus is indeed looking at him, but he’s worried, he’s reaching out, and Mercyan fells like he could break apart, he smiles weakly at him, unbelieving, the Greek approaches him and holds him in place, looking scared for him, and Mercyan knows he shouldn’t seek pity but just this once he’ll allow himself this small comfort, he smiles a little more confidently before brushing the hand off lightly, mouthing a thank you as he steps away, headed to the training area.

“For a bunch of destiny chosen people you are all incredibly lazy”

He doesn’t turn around while speaking, choosing to instead start running, a real smile slipping into his face

“That’s not fair Mer, you had a head start!”

Marianne isn’t all that far behind, and Mercyan doesn’t need to hear Nicodemus to know he’s right with her

“Ghesh probably needs it”

Mercyan barks a laugh at that, the confidence fits Louis well, Lysander and Morena follow with rolling eyes, he just knows.

“You wish Bellot”

He fastens the pace, definitely grinning, it’s so easy to melt back to the way things were, it’s so easy to forget that he doesn’t belong here with them, he takes longer strides, practically jumping instead of running, he sees Nicodemus catching up to him and he beams at him, the other smiles back in a way Mercyan is more used to but the Argentinean doesn’t miss the relief in the grey orbs, he thinks he’ll be ok

 

Mercyan should have known better by now, that nothing good lasts that long, hadn’t he learned from his own life? Captain Shean is a smart woman, she seizes Mercyan like she’s looking at a faulty weapon, and Mercyan feels pretty much like that, he’s used to feeling like that, so he stands straight, shoulders back, and a fierce will in his eyes, he knows this scene well enough, but he will not follow the script this time.

“I don’t have the time nor the resources to look for more trainees, but that isn’t my call, if I give you an option, would you listen?”

“Try me Ma’am”

“I’m gonna give you a week soldier, if you still don’t have a mark by then, you’ll have to answer to the General, do you understand?”

“Yes Ma’am, thank you Ma’am”

“Now go back to your team”

“Yes Ma’am”

He salutes like he’s done a thousand times on his stay here, his time is counted, he thinks about what he’s done and what he’s heard. He thinks about Lysander, looking like a scared child as he confessed to not identifying as either gender, he remembers telling them jokingly that they could say non-binary, agender or whatever; he was a trans man after all.

He remembers Marianne, who was tired of doing things planned by others, who had sought for an escape in maybe the wrong place, he remembers comforting her with Nicodemus, sharing about his identity. He remembers Nicodemus, that same night, telling them that he had been on the edge far too many times, grey eyes asking for help so clearly it hurt, Mercyan held his hand tightly, not even hesitating when he asked to please not leave them. He remembers Morena, weary of her own abilities, looking lost in this situation, but fearless, like she had nothing to lose, nothing anymore, he remembers her admitting it to a different fire, copper skin lit by the flames but eyes tired. He thinks of Louis, who he doesn’t know all that much, he has more potential than most of them, he has talent and experience, it’s in the way he moves and handles himself. Mercyan thinks of all this as he heads to them, of course they would be marked by fate, they deserved it, he knew this like he knew his own name, had learned it while training and surviving, now as they stand before him, he feels extremely small, he wants to scream, but instead he laughs, hands at his sides like he’s presenting something essential.

“Seems you’re yet to get rid of me I’m afraid”

“They’d be stupid not to let you stay for something like this”

“Aw Lu, I didn’t know you cared”

“I don’t know why I even try”

If everyone laughs at this, then Mercyan is more than glad to be guilty, Louis has an uncharacteristic smile on his eyes, it makes him smile widely, thankfully, these are the people he’s come to know, the people he calls his friends, he wants to say he can trust them, but he doesn’t know for how long that will go on for, only just the week he’s given, less, more? Hope is something he knows well, but he’s always been one to believe in destiny, and he isn’t of the ones marked by fate, for all his love of extraordinary things, he’s a realist, he knows when he’s defeated, so he prepares himself for the longest week he’s experienced as he tries not to break down in front of this team, he detaches himself expertly, it isn’t the first time, he’s lived his life balancing over a sharp line without any help, so he doesn’t look at his sides, and he misses the eyes of those who have come to know him, and who are learning to trust him, those who he affected, they’ll be the same without him, he’s sure, maybe even better, who knows?

Mercyan Ghesh has always been one to believe in fate, so he readies himself for a long week, for another stretch to what has been nothing but a futile attempt at doing something, this is where being done with his own stillness has taken him, he should take the chance to make amends but it’s easier and painless to pretend he’s confident, it comes as easy as breathing for someone who’s lived part of his life doing this.

He’s been told all his life, there’s nothing worse than asking for pity, so when he meets grey eyes he finds himself frowning.

“I’m fine Kokkalis, could you stop looking at me like I’m made of porcelain?”

Mercyan regrets his words the moment they come out of his mouth; Nicodemus crosses his arms but doesn’t move aside.

“I’m worried for you; everyone is; shutting us out will do you no good”

 “It doesn’t matter, in a week I’ll be gone, but hey, maybe they’ll let me keep the sword”

“What?”

“Well I like swords, so it would make sense for me to want one”

“What do you mean you’ll be gone in a week?”

Mercyan is the one crossing his arms now, eyebrows raised; it still irks him that he’s the only one who can’t move each eyebrow individually.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Gris, but I don’t have a mark”

The look on Nicodemus face makes Mercyan almost laugh, he looks like someone told him aliens didn’t exist, which is ridiculous considering what they’re training to fight against, he feels the corners of his mouth tugging.

“They can’t do that”

“Everything’s fair in love and war, and we are at war”

His hands tingled and he allowed himself to reach out, to have some sort of contact, light enough to be shoved away without effort, a small smile he probably wouldn’t understand.

“You’ll be ok, I’m not that important”

He leaves, turns around, walks away, he misses the hand that moves to reach for him, the way Nicodemus frowns and his eyes lit up in a kind of fury before simmering down in recognition as Mercyan gets farther and farther away.


	15. Reach out

Nicodemus knew the signs better than he would’ve liked, he saw the way Mercyan detached himself effortlessly and he worried, he worried about how easily he raised his walls and wondered if maybe he would have acted different with people he knew better, but Nicodemus also knew something for sure, so he picked two familiar swords, heading towards the retreating Argentinean with a decided stride.

“Hey Mercyan”

The other started turning and Nicodemus moved his hand on the second sword; amber eyes were eyeing the weapon, good.

“Catch”

He threw it across, Mercyan finished turning and caught it effortlessly, but Nicodemus was expecting that and his feet hadn’t stopped moving forward, he put all the anger he had felt as soon as Mercyan had mentioned not being important on bringing down the sword, Mercyan’s eyes widened as he defended himself, Nicodemus wasn’t taking any of this, he moved again, but Mercyan countered, stress seeping into his eyes alongside annoyance, great.

Nicodemus’ mind was racing faster than his body was moving, he pondered what Mercyan was thinking, brow furrowed and eyes hard, he felt like screaming at him, but this was better, they both spoke this language at a similar level, Mercyan had instinct but Nicodemus had watched him and he knew how to move against the other, but most importantly, Nicodemus was raging.

The Argentinean must have noticed, because he was receiving more hits that he was giving, granted he never let the sword actually touch him, he knew better than outright let Nicodemus win, but it was enough that the Greek has started moving him backwards.

He noticed something desperate in Mercyan’s eyes, it was well hidden under a fake confidence and a much realer thought process, it took a moment for Nicodemus to realize he had pushed Mercyan to the point where he could see the other planning his movements as he was making them, any other time it would’ve been mesmerizing, but right now there was something in Nicodemus’ mind.

“You know”

Mercyan’s breath was labored, but the Argentinean was used to leading Louis on as the two fought, so it probably wasn’t much of a bother for him

“If you have something you want to tell me you could just say it”

Nicodemus scoffed at that, Mercyan wasn’t being sarcastic though, and normally Nicodemus would have opted for that option as well, but he felt like this was necessary

“I would’ve winded up punching you in your face”

“And I’m sure I’d still deserve as much”

“I don’t want to hurt you, so this is better”

Mercyan rolled his eyes and pushed back for the first time, a swift movement of arms and legs that had the Greek stumbling backwards, his sword falling to the ground, the Argentinean grabbed it and carried both swords back to where they were kept, Nicodemus followed.

“I didn’t mean to affect you”

Nicodemus knew what he meant, he didn’t want him relapsing over something that was mineable to Mercyan himself, but there was another tone.

“I’m not the one pretending everything is ok when it isn’t”

Mercyan gave him a pained look, and Nicodemus saw the other’s resolve crumble down in front of his eyes, amber orbs gazing everywhere in desperation before locking to his own grey ones, for once Nicodemus was able to see the hundreds of thoughts coursing through the Argentinean’s mind before his shoulders sagged with a sigh.

“Just, I don’t have the energy to discuss this right now”-here he made a circular motion as if referring to everything around him- “So let’s find a place to sit and you’ll let me ramble a bit”

He emphasized the ‘me’, Nicodemus’ eyes found the banister, the others were practicing on the surroundings but far away enough from the contraption that they wouldn’t be heard, he started heading there, he didn’t have to turn around to know Mercyan was following.

Once sat on the metal bars he felt Mercyan making himself comfortable at his side, playing with the hem of his uniform.

“What do you think everyone was studying before they got in this mess? I have a feeling Mar was going to go for mathematics”

“This is you coping then”

“Hey, you want me to trust you, you deal with my mannerisms”

Nicodemus raised an eyebrow, Mercyan shoved him softly, a frown battling with a smile, it was an odd expression; he then huffed.

"Come on horse, indulge me”

“Hm, I see her on robotics”

“Yes! Exactly, what about everyone else?”

“Lysander could have been on psychology”

“Stars no, I see them more in like marine biology, or something of the like that isn’t human related”

“Morena was on industrial design, I’m pretty sure”

“I can definitely see that, and Louis was of criminology, or marine studies, if those exist anywhere besides Argentina”

“Your marines study to be marines”

“Of course they do”

“Then yes, I can see him doing something like that”

“Oh, tell me what you think mine was and I’ll tell you yours”

“I’m between astrology and museology with you, me?”

“My bets are on Chemistry”

“Ok, I want to change my answer, is there a career for reading minds? I’m sure you were studying that”

Mercyan burst laughing at that, trying to talk to no avail, and almost falling in his attempts at containing it, Nicodemus had to hold him and he finally calmed down, mirth still lingering in his eyes.

“I definitely needed that, fuking asters”

“What did you study then?”

“Cultural History, so museology was a close one, and I did think about going for astrology but I don’t get along with numbers all that well”

“Oh, I think you and Marianne have a great relationship”

“Ah yes, we have a lot of chemistry”

Mercyan wiggled his eyebrows and Nicodemus had to laugh, it was hard not to, but he shoved Mercyan a bit, a little revenge for earlier, the Argentinean exaggerated the movement caused, smacking their shoulders together with a grin

“I don’t think I would be able to cope with actually being able to read minds, there’s too much to consider about it, and I believe strongly that some things are better left unsaid while others are meant to be heard, you know?”

“That does sound an awful lot like you”

“If I did have such an ability I wouldn’t use it on you, I promise”

“No, but you would use it on Louis and I share a living space with him most of the time”

“I refuse to be blamed on recoil damage, not when more than half of the hits are being dealt by hedgehog”

Nicodemus crosses his arms and Mercyan groans, hanging himself upside down.

“This is so not something to discuss on the monkey bars”

“That’s what this is called?”

“Yes… why? What were you calling it?”

“A banister”

“That’s a rough translation, and the one I use is more American, I think”

“I’m going to start asking you for vocabulary, your English is definitely better than mine”

“I’ve been learning English since I was two, your English is fine”

“Your cousin too?”

“I’m afraid my mom’s family isn’t all that fond of the language so no”

“Can you get right side up?”

“One second”

He literally flipped, somehow ending in front of Nicodemus, resting on arm on the spot he was on before looking at the Greek with a lopsided grin.

“Better?”

Nicodemus felt like his mouth dried up, Mercyan moved again, finally going back to his own spot, but not actually climbing to sit beside him, right now he preferred it that way.

“Careers out of the way, let’s talk about relationships”

“Ok”

A distraction sounded great right now, Mercyan smiled

“Now, first the obvious, Louis and Morena”

“I don’t know her, but he’s definitely interested”

“Ly might have a thing for the youngest soldier, Alistair I believe”

“They do?”

“I’m not there for the missions but Ly acts rather coy around them; from what little I’ve seen them interact it may even be mutual”

“What about Marianne?”

“I’m pretty sure Mar isn’t interested in anyone we know, if she’s interested at all”

“Right, there’s always that option”

“Guess that leaves the two of us”

Nicodemus had to try really hard not to look at Mercyan at that, it was said so naturally, it unnerved him, yet he knew he would probably be unable to hold the amber gaze if he were to look at his team mate, Marianne saw them and smiled before walking towards them, Nicodemus felt relieved.

“Oh, Mar, join us on speculating about our fellow trainees”

“Speculating”

“I’m thinking more into the future, like, if you had a pet, what would you name it and what would it be?”

Nicodemus wondered if maybe Mercyan was just expertly avoiding talking about the problem at hand, but the Greek knew better than to press the Argentinean right now.

“I want a gecko called Baeryth, because dragons don’t exist”

“Stars above, that’s beautiful”

“What about you?”

“I could see myself with a bird; probably a magpie if that’s possible; I like the name Musserephy”

“That sounds really cool, what about you Nico?”

“I like the name Celsus, but I haven’t thought on what animal I would like”

“Maybe a rodent of some sort”

“I can live with that”

“Now, what about dear team krypton”

“I think Louis would actually have a hedgehog”

“I bet he would have a beta fish”

“Asters, that would be extremely fitting”

“Morena would have a dog”

“One of those huge dogs”

“Yes! Exactly!”

“Lysander would definitely have a cat”

“Agreed”

“Do you two ever disagree?”

The Argentinean and the French girl exchanged a look; then Mercyan shrugged with his hands.

“Great minds think alike”

Marianne nodded decisively, Nicodemus rolled his eyes, he then pondered how alike the two were, would Marianne be able to tell where the Greek’s thoughts had decided to start heading? And if she did notice, would she tell Mercyan?

“When I saw you two sparing earlier I almost thought you had a serious fight”

“Oh, we did”

“Mercyan was being pessimistic”

“So you challenged him to a sword fight?”

Nicodemus shrugged, he was just angry, something about the way Mercyan said the things he did, and also, he didn’t particularly like the idea of the other leaving, he was sure it would affect the rest of them greatly, Louis wouldn’t have anyone to take his rage on, Lysander would lose the person who understood them best, Morena would lose the corky comments in Spanish that only she understands, and refuses to translate, but always make her light up in recognition, Marianne would lose the person she looks up to the most, Nicodemus would lose the talks at too early hours of the morning about constellations or whatever Mercyan felt like talking about that day, but most importantly, they would all lose a friend, it hurt to think about it, and by the way Mercyan’s eyes turned dark for moments, it hurt the Argentinean as well.

Marianne invited Mercyan to practice close combat with her, and as they left Nicodemus felt static on the palm of his hand, an itching to reach out, Mercyan glanced back at him and smiled bitterly before mouthing a ‘latter’, Nicodemus shoved his hand in his pocket and decided he could wait.


	16. The magpie boy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: long chapter

Louis wasn’t in the best terms with Mercyan, and to be honest he had tried his best to avoid confrontation with the other, which in turn meant that he didn’t pay as much attention to him as others, but he wasn’t blind, he could see the way he looked when he thought no one was looking, after a few days he stopped pretending around Nicodemus, but that didn’t decrease the occurrence, he had stopped being the one challenging others to duels and instead had become the one to be asked for them, he generally refused politely unless it was one of the two members of team stalactite, but the confident attitude Louis had gotten used to correlate with him had dimmed so quickly, it was a wonder nobody was saying something about it.

Louis Bellot knew, from the moment he saw the other straightening his stance when faced with Captain Shean, that Mercyan Ghesh knew more than he let on, it was reinforced by him being able to salute the elder soldiers properly without previous instructions, the way he made himself firm before fighting, and while Mercyan liked to dodge and hit more than defend Louis knew first hand that he wouldn’t budge for a simple punch, feet secure on the ground, as if he had done this a million times, and there were some things that instinct alone could not cover, things one had to learn by themselves.

Mercyan wasn’t a soldier per se, but he could’ve fooled others that he was, Louis was sure, had been sure, but now he knew better, as he saw him move slower, with less intent, it wasn’t that the Argentinean was made for this particular setting, but that Mercyan had adapted to it immediately, like someone who was used to dealing with this sort of change.

So Louis did the only sensible thing he was capable of considering how much the other irritated him, he strode to him, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to an open area, where he shoved the other, Mercyan frowned at him and made the first swing, Louis fought back.

It came as natural as walking, one arm first, then the other, one leg first, then the other, only this time Mercyan caught each hit, and landed each one as well, it was as simple as breathing, the two moving around each other like clockwork, only this time Louis pushed back and moved Mercyan around, it was the most elemental of things, breaths short, but a smile was trying to split Mercyan’s face in two, something shining in his eyes, Louis pushed harder, not noticing his own smile, it was so easy to fight with him, so much easier than anything else, because for all that Mercyan annoyed Louis, the French knew the team would not be the same without him.

They stopped at a whistle, Aoife and Iran stood on either side of Captain Shean, the American woman had a stern look on her face, Mercyan stood straight, Louis followed the example.

“Bellot, Ghesh, go get your teams, you’re going for a swim”

“Yes Ma’am”

He leads the pace to their team mates, he looks rather stiff, Louis ponders if that has to do with the current situation or more with their destination, he was almost tempted to say the other was afraid, he didn’t bother to hide it until they were at eye range from the others, it was more likely due to Mercyan not really caring if Louis saw than him trusting the French not to say anything, he took a deep breath and smiled, Louis almost believed it.

“You’re over thinking”

Mercyan turned to him like he had forgotten he was there, then shrugged.

“I always do; you’re just starting to notice”

“That could cost us our lives”

He smiles again, a challenging glint in his eyes, it’s a familiar sight, almost enough to convince Louis that things are ok, he stares back, trying to get the other to react in any other form, surprisingly, Mercyan adverts his eyes for just a moment before clenching his fists and looking back at Louis with anger, he waves a hand quickly and huffs out heavily.

“Guess we’ll just have to make sure that doesn’t happen”

It’s the first time Louis saw him angry, it’s worrisome as generally Mercyan isn’t one to lose temper easily, and it’s more than enough to prove that this whole ordeal is weighing heavily on his team mate. As Louis walks with the rest of team krypton to one of the pods and sees team stalactite disappear on the other he feels like maybe he misjudged the Argentinean.

 

Morena wondered, as the pod moved at a faster speed that the ones she was more used to, if perhaps Mercyan had finally managed to actually affect Louis beyond annoyance, the French had been oddly quiet since he sat down, despite Lysander’s attempts to make conversation, the Argentinean decided to take matters into hands.

“You’ve been quiet for a while now, did something happen with Mercyan?”

“I think I pissed him off?”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t really say anything, but it’s the first time I’ve seen him angry”

Lysander chuckled, leaning a bit closer to them.

“You two had one of your mental discussions”

Louis raised an eyebrow; Morena looked at him a bit confused.

“Is that what you two do? I thought you were having staring contests”

“Well, that wouldn’t be very surprising either”

Louis rolled his eyes at them, Morena smiled sheepishly while Lysander grinned.

“I’m worried for him; he hasn’t taken the whole mark deal all that well”

“Honestly, I believe it has affected all of us”

Louis sighed in agreement, wondering just what team stalactite could possibly be talking about right then.

 

Mercyan sighs when he sits down in the pod, Nicodemus sits at his side without saying a word; Marianne sits in front of them smiling softly.

“I almost punched Louis in the face”

“That’s odd; generally, he’s the one throwing the punches”

Mercyan averts his eyes to a window, Marianne gives Nicodemus a questioning look and Nicodemus bites his lip.

“What did he say?”

The Argentinean sighs and turns to him, there’s a plea in his eyes for a moment but it disappears as if he had noticed something in Nicodemus’.

“We had a bit of a mental disagreement, if you’d believe such a thing”

“With you two? Sure”

“That’s worrying; do we have silent discussions that often?”

“Told you he didn’t know”

Marianne smirked at Nicodemus, Mercyan frowned and lifted the corner of his mouth; Nicodemus crossed his arms.

“What? It’s not like you’re easy to read”

Mercyan snorted at that, giving Nicodemus an amused smile, the Greek huffed, neither him nor Marianne said a word but as Mercyan drifted off to some point in the distance they shared happy looks, it had been a while since they last seen Mercyan joke around freely.

“I was thinking”

The Argentinean kept his gaze on the distance, as if talking to himself, but the other two had kept their attention of him lately and it was hard not to listen.

“What if there’s more to MAST than what we know? What if we weren’t chosen randomly? I know military can investigate a person, but everything was already ready to use way before we got here”

He started dragging his finger across the window glass, Marianne wondered what he would be drawing had the window been fogged.

“I mean, we were all sent the same day, which was only one day after Mor and I were introduced to the public by name, so they only had two days to prepare the rooms, it doesn’t make much sense”

“I think the only one who didn’t realize there was something going on was Morena”

Mercyan looked at her, Nicodemus nodded in agreement; the Argentinean leaned on his hand, his elbow on the window pane.

“Yes, but what I want to know is, what is it that they’re hiding from us”

The pod continued moving forward, uncaring of the conversation happening inside, of the way amber eyes lit up with something akin to rage, a decided look that spoke about resolve and trust. Not minding the way grey and coffee brown eyes connected gazes for a moment in agreement that this was something they would find out, no matter the cost.

 

They had to walk quite a while from the pod station to the beach, there was a small boat stuck a good swim away from the shore, their objective.

Team krypton got there first, they separated to put on the swimming gear, while doing this team stalactite arrived as well, Marianne ran to where Morena had gone, while Nicodemus followed Mercyan to where Louis had gone, Lysander seemed a bit bothered with sharing the space with them and had gone somewhere else, that left Louis to deal with Nicodemus and Mercyan. Now generally, Nicodemus wasn’t a problem, with them sharing a room the French had gotten used to the Greek and possibly vice versa; Mercyan was a problem to him, but when was he not? Louis had gotten used to the Argentinean as well, although their relationship wasn’t the best out there. However, the two were a terrible combination as much as they were an incredible one if you threw Marianne in the mix, and right now they were managing to put Louis on edge, by being two overly obvious idiots who seemed to be infatuated with one another, the French wondered how Marianne dealt with them.

As they were changing Louis got curious about whether or not they would keep it up while undressing and if either was going to notice at any point, his curiosity served more well than not as he noticed something off in Mercyan’s back as he removed his shirt.

“You have something in your back”

Mercyan turned around, arms still stuck in his shirt, he leaned his head sideways knitting his brows together and pulling his mouth to the side.

“I do?”

Nicodemus turned as well, eyeing Louis with a raised eyebrow before moving his gaze to Mercyan, from his position the Greek should have a good look at whatever it was that Mercyan had, by the way his eyes widened Louis figured he did.

“You do”

“I don’t remember having anything there, what is it?”

“Turn around”

Mercyan did as told, Louis saw it; a bird with its wings spread through the back like it was going for an attack, he would bet anything that it was an actual magpie, not that Louis had ever seen one.

“It says I’m not getting rid of you”

“How very specific”

“It’s a magpie”

“Wait, wait, wait, you’re telling me I have a magpie in my back?”

“You want a picture?”

“I kind of do, actually”

Louis made an exaggerated gasp, a hand flying to his chest.

“How could you not trust me?”

Mercyan looked like he was shaking from containing the laughter, eyes bright with mirth.

“Stars Lou, no”

Nicodemus shifted in place, looking a bit bothered, Louis would have felt bad if he wasn’t having so much fun, he chuckled instead.

“I’ll go get one of the soldiers”

 

The moment Louis leaves the room completely Mercyan’s shoulders fall along with his amused smile, for a moment he looks entirely too fragile, Nicodemus approaches him slowly, it’s impossible to spook Mercyan on a normal basis but he doesn’t want to take the chance, he moves until he’s in his field of vision, Mercyan turns to him the rest of the way, looking exhausted, the Greek reached out, the Argentinean lets go of a shaking breath.

“I’m fine, I just… stars”

It all came spilling out, Mercyan talked, he told Nicodemus that he was terrified, that he had been ever since he saw that Marianne and him had marks too, that he had felt so out of place, how much it hurt to know that he would have to leave, that perhaps it’d be better if he did, how it had broken his heart to think that he would have to say goodbye like that, simply because he hadn’t been chosen, he talked for what felt like hours, voice sore with tears, he chuckled before whipping them off.

“Asters, I’m a wreck”

Nicodemus smiled then, squishing the other’s shoulder lightly, Mercyan rolled his eyes and pulled him in for a hug, the Argentinean was still shaking; the Greek hugged back for a moment before Mercyan detached himself with a beautiful smile.

“Needed that”

Nicodemus felt light but tried not to think too hard about it, soon Louis returned with Rhamnee on tow, the soldier took a look at the mark on Mercyan’s back and agreed that it was indeed one from the legend, he then left them to change, they had been given something akin to deep swimming gear, the swimsuits covered them almost entirely, hands, feet and head where left alone, they were a bit tight.

They reunited with the other three a bit later, Rhamnee told the others that Mercyan had just gotten his mark, Marianne was exited and asked to see it but the Argentinean explained to her that it was in his back, Morena and Lysander also congratulated Mercyan, who looked sheepish in result, amber eyes kept drifting away in embarrassment, Nicodemus found it endearing.

Swimming was something that Lysander seemed excited about, he leads the peace as they crossed the waves to the ship, Morena is the one to keep the pace, Marianne swims a bit behind them, Louis follows while Mercyan stays with Nicodemus though the Greek is pretty sure he could swim faster, the Argentinean gets on the boat last, Louis is looking around the ship, Mercyan crosses his arms.

“Think you can get it to move?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time”

“That’s good, Ly, help me with the anchor”

The older Greek followed the Argentinean dutifully, Nicodemus decided to walk to where Marianne was checking the supplies that were left on the ship, they find some spare uniforms and other clothing in a bag with their chosen swords, the other two were filled with the usual things they were handed for survival with the addition of some fishing gear that had been on the boat, that could only be good.

Mercyan walked slowly to where he had seen the rope for the anchor, Lysander following close behind.

“So, did you get to say goodbye?”

Lysander blushed; Mercyan could tell even with the other’s seemingly natural tan, he chuckled at that.

“I’m glad”

The Greek huffs in annoyance and Mercyan knows he’ll recoil.

“At least I actually confessed”

“Yeesh, that’s low”

Lysander crosses his arms, orange-ish eyebrow arched expertly; the Argentinean is still jealous of that.

“Look, I’ll tell starlight at one point, just… not now, ok?”

“Please do, watching you two pining after each other is ridiculous”

He smiles sheepishly at that, he had time now, he could do this the right way, he owed him that much after everything. The Argentinean finds the rope, grabs it firmly in his hands, takes a deep breath and smiles like a madman before he starts singing, his smile widens when another four voices join one by one, until Louis seems to decide to go with the old saying and gives up to join the rest of them, for the first time in a while Mercyan Ghesh thinks things will turn out alright.


	17. À bord

The boat was big enough for the six of them to sleep on the covered part, upon further investigation one of the soldiers had left an actualized calendar, by the looks of it probably one of the twins, the discovery had them decide they were somewhere in the equator, as it was either autumn or spring depending who read it, the three Europeans had assured that it was never this hot in spring, so the chances were high.

Mercyan sighed, amber eyes trailing along the boards to meet with a male figure, he felt a sense of safeness, a calm he was new to, it was so strange, his mind would turn quiet as he let his eyes fall on the other, the Argentinean had only felt something akin to this the first time he looked at a night sky on an area with little to no light pollution, so he gave him a new nickname, something far more fitting in his head, it was hard to keep it to himself, but he knew well that if he slipped it would be a dead giveaway, and he wanted to confess properly.

So far, he had only been able to tell Lysander, since the older Greek had shared about Alistair, Mercyan had been rather amused at how right he had been about them, maybe Nicodemus had been right when telling him he could read minds, he had never tried to, for the reasons he explained to the Greek on the monkey bars, the other had looked entirely ethereal, as if he was seeing him for the first time, or maybe Mercyan was just really biased.

In that retrospect it now was easier for him to notice things, like the way Nicodemus’ nose would scrunch slightly when smiling, the way his eyes would seem to pierce through him and leave him feeling breathy, how calming it was to just sit down next to the other, not even speaking, though they could talk without hassle, he enjoyed the input on his theories and  opinions, the Greek didn’t just listen but also treat everything like it was important, Mercyan felt charmed, like the world was a bit nicer, in short, he had it bad.

However, he wasn’t the only one pining hopelessly for someone, though there was a chance Louis didn’t know he was pinning in the first place, maybe the Argentinean could help the French out, it would only be right.

Lysander hadn’t expected to be driving the ship so soon, but Marianne had spotted a naval security boat in the distance and both Mercyan and Louis had agreed that it’d be less likely they would be stopped if he was at the helm, having the Argentinean and the French agree on something so calmly was the weirdest thing that had happened so far, seeing the both of them sitting at opposite sides of a table with a spread out map Morena had found was odd in all the ways something could be odd, but seeing them work together without arguing was a relief, though they were sure Louis was trying to process all those things, Nicodemus and Morena had taken over rationing their food, which was a blessing, Marianne had found a telescope hidden beneath one of the seats and had decided to be lookout, normally Lysander would be helping Mercyan navigate, but Louis seemed to be making a much better job than him, Mercyan had enough experience and instinct to function as a human compass, though that would only get them so far.

“I see a flag!”

Mercyan perked up from his seat to look at her

“Do you recognize it?”

“Not really”

Mercyan stood up, heading towards her, it had been a rather long time with nothing but sea, the boat had been a relief though only slight, as there were no signs of land, however said boat had to have a flag, and that would give them a clue as to where they were. Mercyan reached Marianne, who handed over the telescope; it took the Argentinean a moment to say anything.

“That’d be Egypt’s flag; I propose we head south once we pass them”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the long way around”

“It is also the best route for us, since we need to say away from land until we’re contacted”

Louis had his eyes in the map, there was little to do when the two were on the same side, though Lysander understood their position, the more time they made, the better. Mercyan had approached them all, once they were far away from land, and explained that he wanted to learn more about the project they were part of, for that they needed to make a point, they would have to demand answers, to be heard they had to do this one exercise methodically, and that was when Louis came to play, he had agreed with Mercyan and immediately suggested a go-around, the most eastern part of the planet had been the first to suffer the attacks, it was a perfect place to start. It was also nerve wracking, for all of them, Morena seemed to be particularly alert at the thought of having the first encounter with the aliens, Louis was almost as nervous, which made the Greek glad that Mercyan was being agreeable, the last thing they needed was a fight, no, this was definitely better.

 

It took a few more days to go all the way across the two oceans, they were all starting to get tired of fish, Nicodemus saw the sky painted in reds, oranges and pinks when he walked out, Mercyan was sitting on the very tip of the ship, legs hanging in the water, they had left the anchor down to rest for the night, the Greek wasn’t very surprised at the Argentinean but still decided to go with the normal query.

“Isn’t it too early for you to be awake?”

He turned his head slightly, amusement shining in his amber eyes but a scowl on his lips.

“What if instead of stating the obvious you join me on watching the beauty of the earth turning over its own axis?”

“That’s an overly complicated and definitely unnecessary description of a sunrise”

“It also covers any other moment in the day”

“Fine, I’ll indulge you”

“Good choice”

Mercyan looked tired, not due to the obvious lack of sleep he suffered, the Greek was sure the Argentinean was more than used to it, he had caught the other zooning off whenever he wasn’t doing anything too important, Nicodemus had almost considered asking if the other perhaps slept with his eyes open.

“What had you join me at this beautiful hour?”

“I was punched awake”

Nicodemus was sure that any other time that would’ve caused the other to laugh or at least chuckle, but right now there was also a heavy kind of tiredness to the younger male, as he looked at the sunrise; the brunet was filled with the need to ask.

“You look far more tired than usually”

Mercyan let out a long and heavy sigh, leaning back on his arms, head bent to look at the sky.

“There’s a lot in my head, with our little plan and having to deal with a weary Louis, I feel like I’m walking over thin ice”

“You two work together really well despite that”

“That was the least of my worries, but I’m a bit scared that if I’m not the one at the end of his ire someone else will be, especially considering the current state of things”

He went back to his previous position, intertwining his hands as if he were praying, which was a wild concept for someone like him.

“There’s also Morena, who I’m sure by now has had something happen to her due to our otherworldly visitors, to say the least”

He then laughed without any mirth, turning to him, amber eyes gleaming with something else entirely; a grimace on his lips.

“Say starlight, do you see the connecting lines getting tangled?”

“Starlight?”

The Argentinean’s eyes widened, blood rushing to his cheeks, he was about to say something, anything to make up for the slip, when a very recognizable sound filled the air, he looked up to find seagulls.

“We’re close to land”

 

Waking everyone up was a bit of a hassle, until they heard the news about the proximity to land, Louis was the first one out, Mercyan had taken the helm and was getting them closer to shore, the rest followed slower, the French joined the Argentinean followed by the older Greek.

“Ghesh”

“Don’t worry, I’m keeping to the course, we don’t know where our aviary friend came from, after all”

Louis nods, though there are things he wants to ask the other, he isn’t sure Lysander, Nicodemus, Morena or Marianne know, but he’d bet good money on Mercyan having at least a vague idea of why he knows what he does, not that the Argentinean has ever told him, it’s just something that he believes, nothing more, nothing else.

“Land in sight!”

Mercyan smirked, Louis shook his head before walking to where Marianne was; the younger offered him the telescope. Seeing land after such a long trip felt like a breath of fresh air, but there was the fact of the invasion to take into account, it felt like the beginning of something, a soft warm breeze caused by their speed, Louis wondered how long it would take before confrontation.


	18. Loba

She had known, as soon as Nicodemus had told them about the possibility of them being close to land, way before they got anywhere close to seeing the shore of what once was a busy city, they docked on a rundown port, not a soul in sight, it was rather warm, eerily quiet, she felt extremely alert. Everything was enhanced, from the sounds to the smells, she could feel the sea water on the skin of her nose even before she breathed in, could hear the calls of seagulls and the waves crashing, the humming of the ship’s motor, the breathing of those around her, her own breathing and heartbeat, it was slow, calm as she processed everything, she felt the sun beams and the movement of the waves under the ship, her eyes run, seeing more than she could watch, until she met a different pair of eyes, coffee brown clashing against sky blue, she found understanding, sympathy, a kindred soul, she had a moment of quiet, a moment where everything stopped as she realized the gravity of this similarity and felt connected to him, just one moment as the ship stopped and a voice brought both of them back to the real world, Morena didn’t know what to make of it.

Getting on land was easy enough, dividing the load so no one could complain, Nicodemus was the one to guide them once on land, he had the best sense of direction, Louis walked with him with the only map they had found for this part of the world in hand, Lysander stayed on the very back chatting with Mercyan, who was alternating between looking at his surroundings and looking at them, Morena worried the other Argentinean’s history-loving heart wouldn’t be able to take it, seeing a place like this in ruins, anyplace in the globe really, but he seemed to be doing fine so far, Marianne walked calmly at her side, taking on the sights as well, but she seemed much more relaxed, confident in her own skin, she wanted a bit of that.

“You’re tense”

Morena nodded, trying to ignore the way the chocolate brown gaze felt like it was piercing her.

“I think I have a general idea of why, so I’m not going to say much”

Marianne seemed to naturally know how to interact with others, and perhaps that was what made her and Mercyan so compatible, though Morena was certain the Argentinean wasn’t aware of his own effect on people, Marianne, on the other hand, obviously knew what she was doing.

“I just wish I could be as collected as the rest of you”

“Hmm, I believe your weariness will prove justified though, and everyone deals with things different, you are you”

“Quiet down, I hear something”

Mercyan uses a tone that’s reserved for important things, voice heavy with something hard to describe, Lysander had dubbed it the ‘leader tone’, which had made Louis roll his eyes dramatically when it was said, the team stops and Mercyan closes his eyes, Morena finds herself imitating him and realizes what he’s doing; without her eyesight she can hear from the waves against the shore and the seagulls, to the  breeze that brushes past her skin, she wonder what Mercyan hears, she’s sure he has a better hearing than most of them on a normal basis, so chances are he’s probably having a banquet of sounds right now, but by the looks of it her fellow Argentinean not only has a better grasp at choosing what he hears, but also does not like what he’s hearing, his hand reaches back to his sword, as if finding reassurance in the weapon, it strikes her as odd with how little they’ve used them, but she finds herself doing the same.

“We’re not alone”

He walks, pulling his sword out as he advances, until he’s at level with Louis and Nicodemus, the Greek pulls his sword first, and a metallic sound tells Morena that Marianne followed suit, she pulls out her own sword then, the weight is both calming and nerve wracking on equal amounts, Louis and Lysander pull theirs almost at the same time.

They walk in a closed formation, marching together, it’s something they’ve been taught, and it feels familiar enough to come easy, Mercyan and Louis have ended up side by side, defining the two groups, Morena wonders if they will work well together, all of them, when fighting against a common enemy, or if they will inevitably divide into what’s comfortable for them.

The answer will come sooner than though, she realizes, as the sounds of clicks becomes audible for her, she feels the tension heavy on all of them as the first figures come to sight, and she’s attacked by a sense of familiarity. The creatures are a lot smaller than she remembers them, still towering well above the two-meter mark, but she was younger back then, they still had that bug like appearance, if bugs could stand on two feet, despite having about eight legs, and pincers.

“Is it just me, or do these things look familiar”

“Scorpions, they look like scorpions”

“Now that you mention it, they do, without the stings though”

“Are all Argentineans acutely aware of bugs or is it just you two?”

“Scorpions are arachnids”

“But, are they really a threat without the poisonous sting?”

“They do blow up; you know?”

“Ok, less talk, more dealing with the volatile arachnids”

Having Mercyan be the voice of reason sits oddly with Morena, mainly because she doesn’t know whether to think if this is normal or not, she should ask Marianne if they make it out alive of this encounter.

Having Mercyan be the first to move, however, was definitely expected, it was all it took to set things in motion, the magpie sets off and the hedgehog runs after, the horse, the lizard, the cat and the wolf, fall into step with them, team stalactite and team krypton blur for a moment as they slash and avoid the liquids that come from the aliens, there’s a good amount, enough to have them back down until they form a sort of circle, Morena sees Marianne on one side and Louis in the other and it’s hard to tell where one team ends and the other begins, but they’re fighting in an unexpected sync, her mind is reeling.

“Cut the tails, that’s where the heart is”

She speaks without much of a second thought; it’s an attempt at giving them an advantage, she hears Mercyan chuckling at her back and can only feel somewhat proud.

“Good to know, do keep in mind that they will explode”

“Implode actually”

“Forgot you were a chemistry major for a second there”

“Could you two keep the flirting for after we’re free of the aliens?”  

“Ohh, Louis ships it”

“No I don’t!”

“Everyone shut up!”

Morena was impressed when they actually quieted down in an almost sheepish way, she felt a bit thrown off, then one the aliens got closer and chaos ensued. It was odd how easily the six of them fell into place as they had to slash and avoid, to hit and run, Mercyan and Louis were the best suited for making chain reactions, Nicodemus and Marianne were better at throwing the aliens into their paths, and Morena found herself helping Lysander with keeping the other aliens at bay.

Perhaps, it was because of how she had grown up, with only herself, that she found it odd; working alongside them, depending on others, she felt like she barely knew them, though she had learned plenty, about Mercyan’s insecurities, about Nicodemus’ quietness, about Marianne’s detachment, about Lysander’s non conformity, about Louis’ temper. But she didn’t know them, she didn’t know how Mercyan had ended up practicing parkour of why he had picked turquoise of all colors for his hair, he didn’t know why Nicodemus always seemed to be covered of how he felt about anything really, she didn’t know Marianne or why she had winded up inscribing for the project, she couldn’t claim to know Lysander or understand them all that much though she tried, and she knew almost nothing of Louis and why he acted the way he acted. But right now, as she somehow felt all their backs pressing against her, as they rounded up again weapons in hand, as they parted once more to attack, to avoid, and then repeat, she felt like it didn’t matter, and if it did it could certainly wait, because Morena was going to do her best to have them all alive, if it’s the last thing she does.


	19. μυοσωτίς

Once they had a weakness pin pointed it was easy enough to rid of the smallish group of aliens, though Mercyan had them keep moving to make a good enough distance that none of them was turning every two steps, though Lysander doubted any of them would get any sleep, Mercyan would probably be the only one unaffected by that, what with how early he usually woke up

They set up camp, Lysander busies themselves with helping Morena and Nicodemus, Mercyan is the only one still with enough energy to go get firewood, and now that they’re advancing north that’s going to be necessary, Louis and Marianne decide to try and get something to eat fresh, Morena tells them to double check on berries and plants, Nicodemus tells them to look for any sort of stream or other water source that isn’t salty, Lysander advises not to drink directly from there, the two French nod and Marianne makes a joke about needing to jolt everything down and making the motions of taking note in the air, it isn’t all that funny but they find themselves laughing regardless, it feels good

Mercyan goes and comes with branches, small rocks and dry leaves, Lysander only understood the need for two out of three, but Mercyan seemed too focused like to answer it right now

“Hey Mor; is it common to get that many rocks for a fire?”

Morena follows their gaze to the pile of flammable things, she hums

“Well, you need enough to make a circle and some people like to light it with rocks too, but I think Mercyan took a few to write with”

“To write with?”

Morena smiled and nodded before she was called over by Marianne who had some berries, she excused herself and went to the other; Lysander looked back to the rocks wondering what the Argentinean might want to write

Finally, Mercyan drops a bigger rock and more wood he carried in a makeshift bag build with his uniform jacket, which left him in the undershirt, nights were getting colder but the Argentinean paid this no mind

Lysander decided to help Mercyan with the camp fire, and maybe discover what the other wanted to write while at it, building the bonfire was easy enough, Mercyan had two stones set aside to light it, but there were six small red stones put aside, near the boulder the Argentinean had brought last, Lysander finally asked

“What are you planning to do with those rocks?”

“Leave a memento in case we don’t make it in time and someone trails us, so that they know where to find us”

“Isn’t that a bit dark?”

“When you’re fighting extraterrestrial bipedal stingless scorpions, it makes sense to be at least this shade of dark”

Mercyan puts all but one rock in his jacket’s pocket

“Do we still have the calendar with us?”

He raises his voice to be heard by everyone in the premise; Nicodemus makes a wait motion and goes in the recently finished tent, Mercyan starts writing in the very top of the boulder, Nicodemus comes back out with the calendar in hand, Mercyan points at him with the stone

“Any changes in the date?”

“We’re still in the same year, if that’s what you’re asking”

“Good, thank you”

He adds the last strokes and stands up before lifting the boulder and carrying it somewhere where the rain won’t get to it but it will remain visible, Lysander looks at it

_**Horse, lizard, wolf,** _

_**cat, hedgehog and magpie** _

_**2106** _

“Isn’t it a bit vague?”

“Despite its utility, we are breaking the rules with this little mission of ours, let’s at least do it like proper soldiers”

 

The next time it happens Mercyan decides to add the month, but their calendar only shows the year and the time, and no one feels confident enough on technology to try ‘fixing’ it, the small clock is their only clue for it working at all. Marianne is the person to give a solution to the issue of months.

“It took us 3 weeks before the first survival training, a month before our very first mission, which lasted an entire day, then two more months before this one, and we've been sailing for about four weeks, almost a month, in another 7 months or so we would have been part of the MAST project for an entire year”

“May then”

And no one has the energy to question either of them, Mercyan adds the month.

 

It’s become easier to tell what day it is, after a long and very mathematical discussion, where Marianne, Mercyan and Morena, all tried to make an accurate chronology; they are counting from a day the three agreed on, but can’t know if it’s the actual date, regardless, it helps.

There are a few close calls with the aliens, sleep never comes easy even when battered, on the end of their first dated week they find a river they can bath on and drink from; it’s a life saver.

“We should decide on a name for our complete team”

It’s odd for Louis to be the one suggesting it, but considering Mercyan’s new habit of leaving notes every time they make a considerable advance, it makes sense to shorten the message.

“What about dry ice?”

Everyone looks at Lysander, Mercyan gives them an encouraging smile; he takes a deep breath

“I mean, it would make sense, since we’re Krypton, which is a gas, and they’re ice, and dry ice is a material that can go from solid to gaseous”

There’s a quiet moment, before Mercyan gives him a thumbs up with an unreadable expression, it’s enough to send most of the others into laughter, even Louis smiles a bit in amusement, it’s a unanimous agreement, the message changes.

_**Team Dry Ice** _

_**June 2106** _

 

Some things are easy to forget when one is trying to survive this amount of time, things such as holydays and even birthdays, which apparently applies to the youngest Argentinean.

“So how old are you now?”

“22”

“You’re not that much older than me”

“How old are you Mar?”

“19”

“My little star”

“Mercyan I swear on everything that’s holly”

“I apologize, that was very rude”

“Good”

It takes them no more than a few beats to be smiling at each other again, before they both circle Nicodemus, who sighs.

“I’m 25”

“How are you younger than me?”

“I think Louis needs a chair”

“How old are you Mor?”

“I turned 27 a week before the rally”

“You’re all so young compared to me”

“You’re note that old Ly”

“I’m 30 Mer”

“Actually, I’m turning 28 this year”

“See, you’re only two years older than hedgehog”

“I told you he would use them for nickname fuel”

“Holly cosmos, you just said nickname fuel”

“Oh, my god”

Mercyan’s whole face lights up, and Nicodemus is at his side in a stride, hand covering his mouth with a face that betrays how annoyed he’s supposed to be.

“No, not letting you speak anymore”

Louis looks like he’s going to say something; Morena puts a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t tempt him”

And Lysander would be hard pressed to tell who she’s referring to, Marianne takes in the scene with amusement and incredibility in spades.

 

They finally reach ruins that are fresh, they find an abandoned house that’s complete enough, which is good because the temperature has decreased significantly in the last few months, they’ve been walking for so long, and they can’t know if this place is safe for sure, but Louis gets the water to run and everyone gets a warm bath before they all clutter on the living with every pillow and other plush item they could find, dusting them took most of Lysander’s energy but it’s worth it, Morena took care of the blankets that are now wrapped loosely around some as Mercyan works on a bonfire inside a soup pan, which he joked would work as an excellent weapon against their extraterrestrial enemies, and that had lifted the mood considerably. When they find a can of outdoors paint, they have a long conversation over the morality of vandalizing for the sake of reference, or as they all decided to name it ‘the controversy of paint’.

_**Team Dry Ice** _

_**August 2106** _

It stands proudly on the remaining of a wall, the sun shines brightly over it as the paint drips ever so slowly, Morena declares it will dry before the next time it rains, and with that knowledge they set off, leaving the can besides the wall, with nowhere to carry it safely.

 

The air is cold with the beginnings of autumn by the time they’re anywhere close to their destination, they find spray paint in an abandoned building that looks like it will collapse any moment, two cans that are surprisingly pretty much full, one blue and one green, Mercyan gave the green one to Louis and kept the blue, having decided that after they got what they wanted they would go different ways before reuniting at the ship, hopefully it would still be there. Mercyan shook the blue can first, before writing with a bit of difficulty, he then moved aside and gestured to Louis, who shook the green can and wrote below it, they both put the cans in their bags, before starting to walk to the one thing out of place in the scenery, a hatchet to the underground, Lysander gave the wall one last look before going to help them.

_**Team Stalactite** _

_**&** _

_**Team Krypton** _

_**October 2106** _


	20. The truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one got a little away from me lengh-wise

A rather long staircase leads them into a hallway, which latter reveals to be part of an almost labyrinthine set of hallways that lead to different places, rooms, a training area, a common eating place, everything is oddly familiar though older in appearance, they finally find a room that differs from the ones they’re used to.

The room is darker than the previous ones, it feels colder as well, Louis and Lysander set to try and get the energy working, it takes them a few tries but soon the room lights up and a screen appears in the middle, Marianne moves to the control board, typing a few commands to see if it works before looking for the info itself, to get the vague out of the way, she types ‘MAST project’ into the searcher.

The screen is filled with pictures, faces of various people, divided in groups of six, names that range through nearly all languages, each face opens to more, family and friends, date of birth and…

The room is deathly quiet, and Mercyan thinks how fitting it is in the situation, but he can’t bring himself to be humorous right now, not in front of this. So many had died, died with the promise of fate and heroism, he felt sick.

This was the truth, this was the lie, and for once, Mercyan Ghesh wished he had been wrong, the room was spinning underneath him, the images sneering at him, he had gotten what he wanted, he was a part of the team, and he had one of the marks. This place, what they had done with these people, it was as if they had been experimenting, trying to see how much they could bend fate, uncaring for the consequences, everything was moving so quickly, he was going to vomit.

 He felt, heavy, someone was holding him so he wouldn’t fall, this was wrong, what had they done? What were they planning to do? When did it become so dark?

There was a voice calling to him, he was being pulled away, he knew this voice.

“Mercyan!”

Grey, he could see, everything was focusing, slowly, he felt himself collapsing only to be caught.

“Whoa”

Mercyan gives a dry chuckle.

“I don’t feel so good”   

“I can tell”

Nicodemus helps him sit down, Mercyan is still looking rather pale, the rest exchange looks when he doesn’t retort, Nicodemus puts a hand on his forehead and Mercyan closes his eyes.

“I did not need more nightmare fuel”

Nicodemus chuckles as he sighs, sitting down in front of the Argentinean, Marianne smiles softly before joining them on the floor, Mercyan finally looks up, looking a bit better than before.

“Let’s get whatever might help us and get out of here, please”

Louis nods and turns to the other two members of his team.

“You two are good with edibles; maybe you can find something we can take”

Marianne stands up.

“Someone should look for weapons, just in case”

“Two shorts, two longs, one heavy and one light, if you find any swords, utility over aesthetic”

She makes a mock salute to Mercyan, who is still shaking significantly, he looks at Louis.

“She’ll need someone to help her carry those, maybe bring those here, I don’t think I can stand”

Louis nods again and looks at Nicodemus, who is still in the ground.

“Keep an eye on him, we need him here”

“Of course”

“Sorry starlight, I promise I’ll be back on my feet soon enough”

“Starlight?”

“Uh…”

Lysander laughs and pulls the other three away with a smile, Mercyan lets out a groan and covers his face.

“Fucking black holes”

There’s a mutual silence that lasts until Mercyan sighs and drops his hands.

“So, uh, would it be ok with you if I call you starlight?”

“Why?”

“Because you’re constant and I like you”

The way Mercyan says it matter-of-factly makes Nicodemus laugh, it’s ridiculous really.

“Sure, why not”  

 

Marianne balances the sword in her hands, it’s similar to the one Mercyan uses, though a bit lighter, a little too long for her, Louis claimed it was too light for him, still it was in better condition than other swords they had found.

“Just take it to our weapon expert”

“Do you think he’s ok?”

“Knowing him, probably already making bad jokes”

“You laugh just as much as the rest of us, I’ve seen you”

Louis rolls his eyes, a small smile on his lips

“Sure you have”

 

Lysander tosses another expired bag of supplies into the pile; so far they had found a few cans of food and at least two water purifiers, but they were hopping for something different, finally they find a little treasure, a sardine can at the very bottom that’s fairly new, both a nice surprise and a bit of information, just how recent was this base?

“Let’s mention the date after everyone has digested the food, ok?”

“Yes Ma’am”

Morena smiles at them in amusement, Lysander considers it a victory.

“You know; I’ve been thinking”

Lysander nods when she looks at them.

“Louis reminds me of my first crush”

“Oh? Who was it?”

“Well, you know how when you’re a kid and you get heart eyes at someone much older than you?”

“Definitely”

 “He was a soldier, helped me out when my parents died, I never got to know his name”

Morena has a nostalgic smile as she works with the remaining of the possible supplies in front of her, Lysander stays quiet.

“It’s odd, I don’t remember much about that time, but I have the feeling like he looked a lot like Louis”

She then looked a bit flustered, turning to Lysander with something akin to mischief.

“Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s kind of cute”

“Why not?”

“He tends to get a bit… physical when he’s flustered”

Lysander chuckles and puts a hand on their chest.

“You have my word”

 

By the time they regroup the screen has been turned off and Mercyan is leaning into a broken board, making very slight hand motions, still looking a bit dizzy but back to the more usual smile, Nicodemus is in front of him, arms crossed but smile tugging in his lips as he retorts, what gets everyone is the fact that each of them are speaking in their own language, somehow maintaining the conversation, Marianne looks at them with bewilderment.

“Did you teach Nicodemus Spanish without me knowing?”

The two turn to her, Mercyan holds up a hand and takes out something from his ear.

“We found translators, figured we’d test them”

“That sounds fun”

Nicodemus takes off his own translator; Mercyan inspects the one on his hand.

“Apparently the previous team of recruits didn’t share any common languages so they used these”

“Learning chips aren’t all that old, but still, these look rather recent”

“We can talk about that after you’ve eaten something”

Morena has her arms crossed in an expression that doesn’t give room for arguments.

“Do I get to investigate after that?”

He leans his head to the right, Morena sighs but agrees. Marianne approaches Mercyan with a sword on her hands, a smile on her lips, the Argentinean lights up.

“Oh, a lefty”

“There are swords for left handed people?”

“Well, there are daggers for the left hand, but no, this is just part of a set of two”

“You can tell”

Louis looks extremely tense, fitting with the unbelieving tone he took, Mercyan unsheathes his sword carefully before showing it to the two.

“You did realize it’s literally the same design as this one, right?”

 “What are the odds?”

Marianne tilts her head sideways, eyes still fixed in the sword in her hands.

“It’s a lighter that your sword though”

“Can I try?”

She gave him the sword after he sheathed the other one; he balanced in his hands and even made a few swings.

“They weight the same to me”

“Can I try lifting your sword?”

He unsheathed it again and gave it to her; she balanced it on her hands.

“You’re right”

Louis rolls his eyes

“You’re contagious”

Mercyan gives him a cocky smirk, arm to his waist.

“I am”

Louis takes a step back, arms raised in front of him, smile trying to form in his face, Mercyan snorts at him, all is well.

 

After eating, like promised, Morena gave Mercyan the now empty can of sardines, he checked dates with Marianne and both concluded that it was fairly recent considering the state of the building they were in, but that contradicted the way mediums talked about the project with such novelty. There was so much being hidden, so many lies, that it came as no surprise when everyone felt like telling the truth. They sat down in a circle, taking turns to pass the last red stone around and saying something about themselves, Mercyan went first.

“I have a slight case of claustrophobia and vertigo”

Marianne hugged her legs beneath her chin

“I entered the rally to escape from my family”

Morena crossed her arms tightly.

“After my parents died my family cut all ties with me”

Louis looked downwards and didn’t look back up.

“My dad was one of the soldiers that pushed the aliens away from America[1], he died in battle”

Lysander looked at their own hands as they spoke.

“I haven’t told anyone in my family about me being agender”

Nicodemus was last; he uncovered his arms to reveal multiple scars.

“I’ve tried to kill myself twice”

There was a moment of silence, as they all processes everything said; then Mercyan took one of Nicodemus’ arms gently.

“These look old, about seven months or so”

“I stopped after our first mission”

“That’s amazing starlight”

He turned to Marianne.

“If you want, once this is over I can take you with me, I’m sure dad won’t mind”

It was moments like these where it became evident why team stalactite was so close, it was so easy really; the three other exchanged glances, Louis sighed, a smile forming in his face.

“Well, we’re a gas after all”

Lysander chuckled and Morena smiled, it was ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Meaning the continent not the country.


	21. Departure

Parting ways was hard; they all stood awkwardly in silence at the edge of the city, until finally Mercyan held up a hand, palm up, to Louis, who took it with a solemn expression.

“Keep team krypton alive Lou”

“Same to you”

Mercyan nods shortly, letting go of the hand, smiling at Morena and Lysander.

“Keep an eye out for him, would you?”

“Of course”

“Yes sir!”

Louis glanced between them in incredulity and Mercyan laughed, he turned to his teammates and crossed his arms behind his back.

“You should say your goodbyes now”

Louis huffs at him, Marianne and Nicodemus exchange amused looks, Mercyan keeps moving until he’s at an agreeable distance from them, he turns again to watch as his teammates say their goodbyes, his eyes move to the closed hatch and his hands clench into fists, he had to start moving.

As Nicodemus and Marianne walked towards him, Mercyan smiled in spite of himself, this was also the truth, about the trainees of the MAST project that had been divided into two groups, this was the truth about team stalactite, and this was the truth about them, now they just had to move forward with this knowledge.

“So, where to?”

“Southeast, since Krypton is going southwest”

“Starlight, you’re the best at directions”

“We’ve moved solely north to come here, now we head the opposite direction and towards sunrise”

“Sounds like a plan”

 

Team Stalactite is long since disappeared in the distance before they move, Louis complaining about how Mercyan had them both against him, Morena asking why someone against him would worry about him, and Louis actually stuttering a weak response, Lysander tells them both that the other team is gone from view and that’s all it takes to have Louis advancing with a decided pace, Morena smiles at them before following suit, Lysander chuckles before going after the other two.

“You know, sometimes it’s kind of scary, how well team stalactite gets along”

Louis whips around so fast Lysander is surprised his neck doesn’t crack, his eyes have widened and his expression alone is priceless.

“Yes!”

Morena turns too, looking like she’s having trouble deciding how to feel about this

“They’re impossibly in sync, it’s ridiculous”

Her hands move up and down to emphasize, Louis nods along

“Ghesh knows what to say all the time, I mean, how can a human being be so good with words?”

Lysander nods in agreement, smile tugging at his lips, Morena looks a bit flushed

“And Marianne is so calm and collected, Jesus”

“Nicodemus too, nothing seems to face him, last night was the first time I’ve seen him anything other than just chill”

“Lysander, did you just say chill?”

There’s a moment in which Lysander falls into realization before Morena starts laughing, Lysander becomes ten different shades of red before Louis joins, and honestly the Greek should be angrier, but can’t.

The emptied city disappeared in the distance, a creature crawled from a building a little further from where the base was, tail swishing as it eyes the silhouettes in the distance, a sharp sting curls at the tip of its tail, dripping venom.

 

There’s crowing in the distance, Mercyan stops and looks to the sky, Marianne and Nicodemus stop and turn to him, the see as his face turns into a manic grin, when they look up to where he’s facing they see it too, a flock of magpies flying in the direction they were headed to, he raises a hand to his chest and uses his most serious tone.

“My people are returning home”

It takes close to nothing before Marianne starts laughing uncontrollably like that was the funniest thing, Nicodemus finds it hard not to join never mind at least grin, Mercyan looks way too proud of this development, Marianne puts a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry you have to take the long way”

Mercyan laughs at that, almost falling into her, Nicodemus finds the scene entirely too adorable.

“But I would have liked to have experienced winter, you know? I’ve never seen snow”

“Remind me to take you to see it when the war’s over”

“I’ll hold you to that starlight”

“Well, that’s the gayest thing I’ve ever witnessed”

“I’ll have you know I’m demisexual”

“Ok, the queerest”

“Thank you”

Nicodemus rolls his eyes at them, a smile tugging at his lips, they are ridiculous.

They reach the remaining of a street, there’s an old car standing still in the distance, Mercyan’s face lights up.

“This is like a zombie apocalypse”

“There are a lot more aliens involved”

“Ah, you just haven’t read the right books”

“Witty remarks are your answer to everything then?”

“I’m really tempted to make a comeback; you have no idea”

Nicodemus raises an eyebrow at him, Mercyan covers his face dramatically.

“No! The curved up eyebrow, my only weakness!”

“Mercyan”

It comes out more amused than angry; he lowers his hands and puts them on his hips before smiling softly.

“Laughter is the best cure for stress”

Marianne nods her head solemnly and Nicodemus can’t help but laugh at them, it makes him feel noticeably better, he gives them a thankful smile, they exchange beaming looks, the Greek doesn’t know how to respond to that but he feels like it’s ok, they are fine.

“Should I do floor or car?”

“I feel like the floor is safer”

“Yeah, you’re probably right”

“Yeah?”

“Look, accents are really contagious for me”

“Don’t let Alistair hear you”

“Oh stars, how would that even go?”

“You should talk about it with Ly”

“Wait, so you were actually serious about them back then?”

“It became a thing way after that”

“What are you two talking about?”

“Starlight and I had a heart to heart on the monkey bars way back”

“I’m somewhat convinced that he might be a psychic”

“So you’ve known for longer than the rest of us”

“I have no idea, I actually didn’t know you knew, actually, does anyone else know”

“I doubt there’s someone who doesn’t know”

“It’s kind of cute”

Mercyan and Nicodemus nod in agreement; they get closer to the car, which they approach more carefully, it’s dusty and has every sign of having been left out in the open for too long, but all parts are still there.

“Think I’ll get attacked by anything if I start inspecting this?”

“Most likely”

Marianne smirks, eyes lit.

“I’m going to open the trunk”

“Marianne no”

“Marianne yes!”

“I swear to god Marianne”

“Enough! Both of you”

They both look at Mercyan, he huffs striding to a piece of metal nearby, he drags it back, puts it in the tiny space in between, pushes down and the truck pops open as he jumps away from it, when nothing comes out he gets close once more, this time the other two followed.

 

Reaching one of their previous camp sites wasn’t exactly part of the plan but it made them all agree than Mercyan had been right with the notes, Louis added one right below the previous one, checking quickly with Lysander for the month, only for the Greek to proclaim it was birthday month, which became code for November once Louis told them his birthdate, which he was complaining about as he used the aerosol.

They found the place they had slept at and settled down there for the night, Louis checked the map, Lysander started a controlled fire and Morena busied herself with deciding what they would eat and checking to see if they needed to restock anything, the evening was spent in a busy silence.


	22. Three make a team

In the trunk of the car they found an old suitcase that had remained unscathed as far as it could be seen, and after debating the chances of it having anything other than clothes they finally decided on opening it. Cracking the vehicle itself open was done just as cautiously, inside they found the fire extinguisher and a tool box, after yet another debate on chances and security of materials they decided to open it as well.

The suitcase revealed clothing, as expected, an ID of sorts, which had been thrown in the bottom of their own bag, a few cans of food and one medical kit, the medical kit was revised about four times before the trio decided everything on it was still usable. The tool box was filled with tools as expected, there’s a Swiss army knife underneath the first lid, which goes to the bag, and a sharpener that also goes to the bag, they empty the rest of the tools on the floor and try to guess what they could need, taking the full box isn’t an option considering its weight, though Marianne is sure it would make for an excellent weapon, she holds the emptied box as high as she can, Mercyan falls back laughing, laying on the ground they had been sitting on,  he says half formed words in Spanish in between laughs, Nicodemus looks at him in amusement, Marianne drops the box and lays herself besides him looking at the darkening sky, Nicodemus rolled his eyes, Mercyan grabbed his arm and pulled him down with them, Nicodemus huffed but made no movement to get back up.

“Did either of you think this is how you would end when you signed for the project?”

“The fighting Aliens, yes; the lying on an abandoned street part? Not at all”

“It’s so warm”

“Well yes, pavement is made of sand and… other stuff, gravel maybe? Probably dark stone, both that and sand soak solar heat like sponges”

Nicodemus snorted, Mercyan grinned at him, and Marianne smiled at the two in amusement. Mercyan lifts his legs upwards and bends his body back only to move it all forward, standing in a sole dynamic movement, once upright he dusts off his uniform pants and stretches.

“Well, we better get a fire going before the sun moves any further west”

“You know, I liked the description for sunrise better”

“Well, I’m more poetic when tired”

“What are you two on about now?”

“Nicodemus needs to catch up on his sleep; he keeps waking up too early”

“You secretly enjoy it though”

“You know me too well lizard”

 “Go get the wood Mercyan”

“Sir, yes sir!”

 

The fire crackled softly, illuminating the pavement with its warm glow, Mercyan kept an eye on it while Nicodemus decided the meal, Marianne looked for a good place to put their tent, it was getting late, and they needed to sleep.  The French wonders how the other team is fairing, though since the first survival she hasn’t worried that much, they obviously work well enough together.

Mercyan started humming to himself, a song Marianne couldn’t recognize, it took him nearly a minute before he started murmuring in Spanish; Marianne busied herself making the tent as the Argentinean started singing clearer but still softly, she could understand loose words of what he was saying, she chanced a glance at Nicodemus, who she caches staring, she raises an eyebrow at him when he notices her eyes on him and Nicodemus promptly gets the rest of what he needs to cook out of the bag, Marianne rolls her eyes and wonders if anything will happen now that the three of them are alone, she hopes so, those two are getting ridiculous.

 

By the time the night sky is filled, the tent has been successfully set up and they have eaten, Marianne proceeded to bother Mercyan until he translated at least the name of the song he had been singing into English, only for the Argentinean to make a sound like he had tasted something nasty and comment that it sounded so much worse than it was when he said it in English, Nicodemus patted his shoulder and Marianne laughed. Now the French was sleeping in the tent, Nicodemus was making good use of what was left of their bon fire and Mercyan sat a little further over the roof of the abandoned car, having claimed it was the best view he was going to get when in the middle of what at one point had probably been a highway, his words. Nicodemus sighed and chanced another look at Mercyan, who had made himself comfortable on the metal, he looked a bit tenser than what Nicodemus remembered from previous nights, even after their first encounter with the Aliens, but the Greek knew well that what bothered Mercyan’s mind had little to do with otherworldly arachnids and everything to do with how humans had decided to handle them. Nicodemus had been more affected than he cared to admit, after all, how could he know that they wouldn’t become just more faces in the screen, with no one to remember them; he reasoned that it would be hard to hide their deaths with how much publicity they had had, or perhaps the publicity was there to hide the fact that four out of the six of them had been investigated on depth before being chosen, hell Morena was probably investigated as well, raffles could be easily tampered with, then again Mercyan was an oddity in that mentality, because of how late his mark appeared. The Greek stood up and wondered towards Mercyan, the Argentinean must have heard him approaching because he turned to him and tilted his head to the right, right then he looked very bird like and Nicodemus felt a wave of fondness at the comparison, it was cute, not that he would say that out loud, he wondered how the other would react though.

“You look troubled”

His voice was quiet, nights seemed to have that effect on Mercyan, who generally spoke with a tone that demanded an audience; he could see the other acting.

“My mind is finally catching up with what happened back in that place”

“Ah”

Mercyan pulls his lips in sympathy; he moves his eyes around before settling them back on Nicodemus and sighs.

“You should at least try sleeping, I can see without the fire and Marianne is going to need someone in there with her”

“You think she’s going to have nightmares”

“I think that none of us will get much sleep, which is bad because we will need the energy”

He runs a hand through his hair, and Nicodemus feels the need to ask, so he does.

“How come your hair is still turquoise?”

“Permanent dye starlight, like tattoos for hair”

“Oh, I forgot that was a thing”

Mercyan gives him an unbelieving look, eyebrows raised and knitted together with lips pulled into a line, he moves his hands and lips as if trying to form words to no avail finally settling on rubbing his face before shaking it in disbelief and sighing.

“You’re unbelievable starlight”

“I’m pretty sure that’s a contradiction”

Mercyan snorted before he began laughing uncontrollably, a few breathless phrases in Spanish that Nicodemus wished he could understand, he finally caught his breath jumping down from the rooftop of the car gracefully.

“I needed that”   
He turns his whole body to Nicodemus, before circling him and turning him around with an ease the Greek isn’t expecting, he even manages to push him a little.

“And you need to sleep, if you spend another time cycle awake with me it will start affecting your body, and I need those senses sharp”

“How are you this strong?”

“I used to parkour starlight, plus the training that you have also had, I could probably lift Aoife, but I like my limbs where they are”

“Fine, I’ll go”

Mercyan releases him and Nicodemus walks to the tent, he stops to kill the fire with no comments, when he’s at the door he glances back and sees that Mercyan has climbed back up the roof, the Greek sighs and shakes his head before getting inside the tent, he needed sleep.

 

Amber eyes roamed until they met the tent, a smile forming in his lips, Mercyan goes back to his work but allows himself to drift into his thoughts, it had never dulled his senses before, multitasking at its best, he guessed. The Argentinean knows too little or just not enough, and that’s something he’s generally ok with, it means he can still learn so much, it’s always been exiting, until it became bothersome. Mercyan Ghesh was an Argentinean boy, who had practically grown up surrounded mostly by other Argentinean boys, he knew how to flirt his way out of a tricky situation if he had to, he knew how to be charming and how to act idiotic enough to be left alone, he knew how to move to get attention and how to move to go unnoticed, the second he had learned while parkour-ing, the first he learned when trying to look as masculine as he could, it was a complicated time on his life, comparing that to the situation now left him sighing way too much, thirteen year old Mercyan had yet to learn much about himself, 22 year old Mercyan on the other hand, had a different set of problems, part of which had little to do with their current situation and much to do with a certain brunet he liked a little too much, it was a mess, really, but when was it not.

Among other things, and to be honest his mind had never been the calmest, he wondered about the two people in their group of six that had suffered from their alien invaders, Louis was volatile, he had clarified as much to Lysander back in their shared room, nothing dangerous if you kept him working, give him a challenge, let him throw a few punches, he’ll be back to normal, Morena on the other hand, he knew very little of, he could tell she was affected, and now knew the reason, but he didn’t know how she would react if she saw them again, the first time had been a success, but there was no telling it would always go like that, specially not now that they had gone their separate ways, he hoped team Krypton would find a way to deal with it.

A cold breeze brushed past him making him shiver, he closed his eyes momentarily, breathing deeply before opening them again, he loved cold nights, they were easier to sleep in, he loved the cold in general, it was calming in a sense, autumn had a kind of energy that was hard to ignore.

And they were approaching winter, despite himself, there was a part of Mercyan that didn’t want to go back home just yet, he shook his head, he muffled his thoughts expertly and just absorbed the sensations, shapes becoming a bit cleared beneath the moonlight, sounds growing louder, he could hear the wind before it passed by him, he could feel the draining cold of the metal he was sat on, he could feel his own weight, he could smell the grass that extended beside the road, and the remains of the now dead fire, it was a quiet night and that never bode well, he waited for a bit, then another, finally he heard the sounds of nocturnal birds fill the air, he breathed deeply again, they were far but it was a noise that calmed him, birds were always the first to know of danger, he kept his eyes on the open space, ears attentive to the slightest change, an alert sort of energy buzzing through him, feeling far too awake, a smile pulled at his lips, it was exhilarating in the oddest of ways, he didn’t think much of it.


	23. A need for hope

The change in outlook has Morena seeing the sunrise, it was a quiet night, if anything a bit cold but that was to be expected. Though the sight was beautiful, she couldn’t help but to feel wary, Morena might not have had the senses of her fellow Argentinean, nor the obvious expertise of either her French or Greek teammates, she didn’t have the confidence of the other female of the six,  nor could she know what reacted with what and how that turned into smoke bombs, granted Nicodemus was probably the only one in the team who knew, but she had instincts of her own, they were what kept her alive now that she had to fend for herself, but she hadn’t thought they’d be of any use when out here until recently, it was something she realized, back on the abandoned city, she saw signs of something living in the ruins, they appeared here too, in the ruins they had made a camp on, and that had put her on high alert, it was quiet, too quiet, and when one was this alert, noises tended to amplify, no, this was the calm before the storm, she would dare say she felt the tension in the air, felt the eyes watching, a shiver run through her spine, ever since joining the project she had not once felt like this but it was a feeling she recognized, she felt eerily alone.

 

Morena waited seven beats, seven was a god number, Louis would have had about four hours of sleep, if he had gotten any, still, she couldn’t stay put, they couldn’t stay there, every alarm in her mind was going off to danger, it was too quiet, the sun had risen, and she knew for a fact that there was something in the ruins with them. Seven beats, a lot could happen in that time, but what irked Morena was that nothing did, still unnaturally quiet, and as soon as the word seven passed through her mind she shot up from where she had been sitting on a roof, and got down to where her teammates were sleeping, she took a deep breath before waking them up. At first she thought it would be hard to convince them, instead she found herself explaining what was happening, pointing to the signs that she had seen, explaining what it could mean, and the other two listened and believed her; it felt a bit odd, in a good way, and she couldn’t help but sigh in relief when upon exiting the three of them had their weapons at the ready.

They inspected the ruins more through fully than they had the first time, attentive to any and all signs of anything unearthly, a task that was easier said than done, considering the state of their current location, once they had checked what they could of the ruins without any luck they finally started their trek southwest once more, Morena was feeling a bit more relaxed but had yet to sheath her weapon, neither did Lysander nor Louis, it made her smile a little, it was odd to have others trust her this much, she appreciated it enormously.

It was hard to believe, that she had come to rely so much on others; it was a nice contrast with how her life had played till now. Morena had never believed much in luck, or rather she hadn’t had too many experiences with it, there had been many things going on in her head when she entered the rally, and though she wasn’t expecting this outcome, it was definitely a pleasant surprise; having friends, trusting others, having others trust her, laughing with them, fighting with them, sharing her past with them; it all made her feel a myriad of emotions on row, and maybe that’s what being lucky felt like.

 

After hours of searching they decided that if there had ever been anything other-worldly living there it was long since gone, Louis was the one to make the suggestion of keep moving to their next destination, even though he walked just as slowly as Morena to give her some sense of security, things were a mess, Lysander kept an eye on the two while glancing at the surroundings at times, there weren’t any signs of danger but it didn’t cost to be cautious.

None of them said a word until the city was well away from their sight, they changed course to go a little further west, like they were supposed to, as the afternoon rolled in they found a place where the road had been taken over by vegetation, they set camp a little further ahead, after it was done Morena wondered to the line between the grass and the remaining road, Lysander glanced from where he was checking their supplies to where he was putting their supplies in the tent to where Louis was finishing building the camp fire, it was still bright so he hadn’t lit it yet, when the sky blue eyes meet the green ones of the Greek they gave him a silent request, the French nodded and silently stood up and went towards Morena ; the Argentinean seemed to notice him as she straightened a little.

“You’re not pulling a Mercyan on us, are you?”

An amused smile tugged at her lip, he considered it a victory.

“I’ll sleep; I was just remembering something”

She finally looks at him, a nostalgic look overtaking her features, mixed with something Louis can’t quite decipher but isn’t sure he likes.

"Back when my parents died I got help from one of the soldiers, I thought it was odd that you reminded me of him, but I really think it was your dad"

He smiles back sadly.

"I'm glad, to know he was the kind of person I thought he was"

She nods silently then turns to see Lysander looking at them from besides the tent, she smiles to herself.

“You two are definitely too good for me”

Louis wants to argue but she has already left his side, practically striding towards Lysander, he sighs and smiles.

“That’s my line”

 

The three now sat around the fire, night had fallen around them, and they had eaten their dinner. Lysander took a drive from his pocket, showing it to the other two.

“I managed to download the information while Mercyan was exploring the old base; I think I found something useful”

“Is that one of those autonomic drives? I thought those were very expensive”

“They are, but it’s definitely worth it for this kind of situation”

Morena nods slowly, Louis clears his throat

“So, what did you find?”

“A quicker method to get rid of them, it has to do with radio waves and molecules I think, I would need to ask Nicodemus”

“Well, we’ll have to get this done first then, and survive the trip too”

“Them as well”

“Are all Argentineans that dark or is it just Mer and you?”

“No, I think it’s a common thing”

It brings a smile to the other two, and it’s so simple, really, and she can now somewhat understand how the other three do this, it’s about trust and about understanding, it’s a tentative kind of friendship that forms only for these situations, it’s born out of need and hope, and though it’s been a while since she thought about it, her life has been that all these years.

Need to survive, hope of living as well, needing protection, hoping tomorrow will be different, needing a change, hoping it would happen. And now, needing to go through with the plan Mercyan and Louis came up with, and hoping they will all live to see the end of the invasion.


	24. ραγίζω

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: One Mercyan-ish nightmare described to detail (or what technically counts as a nightmare, drams are a weird thing)

The atmosphere is starting to get brighter when Marianne taps on Mercyan’s shoulder to switch places, the Argentinean doesn’t say much, just slides down from the car and heads to sleep.

Mercyan enters the tent and finds Nicodemus half awake, he moves towards him slowly as not to startle him.

“It’s ok, you can sleep”

He says it in the most soothing tone he can while whispering, the Greek nods his head sleepily and falls back into his sleeping bag, Mercyan settles down facing him, the Argentinean is tired enough that he’ll probably get a few hours in himself, he closes his eyes.

First everything is black, his other senses amplify, it always takes a few minutes between him closing his eyes and actually falling asleep; nothing ever changes.

Mercyan finds himself in a familiar setting, grey walls tower around him and he feels himself getting smaller, he sees shadows and he tries to reach out, tries to ask for help, the more he struggles the clearer the figures become, disgust washes over their faces, he knows that look too well, he sees one that stands out amongst the others and he recoils.

Everything is white only it isn’t, he doesn’t have to turn to see the bodies, he can smell the blood, he can see the contrast of red on white in the corner of his eyes, but the figure is still there, Mercyan is afraid of moving in the slightest, afraid of seeing this one figure clearer, one constant thought trails through his mind, ‘not you’, over and over again, the figure becomes clearer despite him, the look on the face cuts deeply. He can feel tears on his face, a combination of desperation and hurt, as the figure turns around and walks away, Mercyan lifts a hand, trying to reach out.

“Ni–“

“Mercyan!”

The first thing he sees are grey eyes wide with worry, it takes him a moment to focus on anything else, he’s covered in sweat and has been crying, he’s panting, it takes him another moment to focus on the person holding him.

“Starlight?”

Nicodemus sighs in relief, it isn’t the first time this happened, but by the looks of it this nightmare was worse than the other ones, his body quickly provides proof of this statement.

“I feel like hell, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“Only pushed me a little, I managed to pin you down”

“That’s good, stars, I’m blurred; how long was I asleep?”

“A little less than six hours, you started mumbling”

“That’s a new record for sure, did I say anything interesting?”

“If you did, it was probably in Spanish”

Mercyan nods slowly, he notices the position they’re in.

“You can move starlight; I’m not going anywhere”

Nicodemus’ eyes widen and he moves quickly, Mercyan takes the opportunity to wipe off the remaining tears of his face.

“It was different this time”

“What do you mean different?”

Mercyan smiles almost bitterly, he can only hope Nicodemus doesn’t read the gesture wrong, when the Greek makes no move to leave the tent he decides it’s probably safe to continue.

“Generally it’s the same dream, I’m in a room with grey walls surrounded by people I care about, I get smaller and smaller, the more I struggle the better I can see those around me”

Mercyan sits up, pulling his knees close enough to rest his chin on them.

“Once I can see them perfectly they’ll leave, one by one, they are so disgusted with me, they always are, but as they leave I can hear their voices, as if they were actually talking to me, they tell me I’m not worth it, over and over, and no matter how much I scream the noise never comes out”

He’s shaking; Nicodemus has moved closer, worry etched on his features again, the Argentinean hugs his legs tightly.

“This time it veered towards other things, not that I’m impressed”

“The abandoned base then”

Mercyan gives a firm nod despite everything, Nicodemus touches his shoulder tentatively; Mercyan sighs and leans into the other.

“I don’t really have a good reason for cutting”

“There are no good reasons for hurting yourself, but try me”

Mercyan can almost feel him rolling his eyes.

“I just, my parents are great and I, and well I feel like I always complicate things for them, so I thought it would be easier for them if I wasn’t in the picture”

Nicodemus reaches out, trying to ground himself, Mercyan takes the hand softly and starts playing with it wordlessly, he feels the Greek relax a bit.

“I mean, I know they care a lot about me and I realize they’ll be sad about it, but, eventually, they would get back to normal”

“So you got into the project”

“To put it shortly”

Mercyan nods, the tent is quiet for a moment, Mercyan’s still playing with the Greek’s hand.

“The training kept me busy”

Mercyan turns his head so he can look at Nicodemus, the older fights back a smile.

“And I guess the rest of you aren’t half bad”

Mercyan snorts, secretly very glad, the Greek is being honest to respond to his own honesty.

“For what’s worth, you won them over with the smoke bombs”

Nicodemus raises an eyebrow and Mercyan knits his.

“And that’s why you’ve never won me over, flaunting your eyebrow movements in my face”

Nicodemus starts shaking and it takes almost nothing before he’s laughing, Mercyan smiles to himself, that’s how Marianne finds them when she comes to change places with Nicodemus, looking very mirthful for two people risking their lives, Nicodemus exits the tent with a broad smile and Marianne crosses her arms at Mercyan, the Argentinean gulps.

“So, you’ve declared your undying love to him yet?”

Mercyan flushes and fumbles a bit as he stands up as well backing up slowly towards the door, Marianne doesn’t mention how most of what he’s saying is an odd Spanish-English hybrid of a language, once he’s out he runs and Marianne rolls her eyes at him.

Mercyan stops near the remaining of last night’s fire, he sighs.

“Well, she’s not wrong”

He brushes his hair back, it’s grown a bit over time, Mercyan is glad it grows so slowly, really, he can wait until they get back to the base for this, and they are going back.

 

Nicodemus looks at the car, where his two team mates have sat while being lookout, he weights the possibilities of it collapsing under his weight, he notices Mercyan on the corner of his eye before the Argentinean approaches, him and Marianne have gotten a little too used to Mercyan making close to no sound when walking.

“So, are you going to sit up there?”

“I’m worried it might give out on me”

“Nah, it isn’t in that bad of a shape, it’ll hold”

“Is there anything you don’t know?”

“I really don’t understand art. I mean, like abstract art and modern art, it just really confuses me”

Nicodemus does the only reasonable thing one can do with such a response, he bursts out laughing

“Also geography, when I was little I used to think Europe was in the USA because I had never seen a full world map”

“You’re kidding”

“I’m completely serious”

Nicodemus laughs again, Mercyan is now trying to look serious but he’s fighting a smile.

“No but really, I know how to get places, I could not pin point them on a map”

“So two things so far”

“Oh, we’re doing this, ok”

Mercyan lifted himself over the trunk of the car and then into the roof, once he was perched there he grinned at Nicodemus, who rolled his eyes and imitated the sequence.

“I’m terrible at drawing, always been”

“But I bet you dance really well”

Mercyan shrugged, he leaned back on his hands, tilting his head upwards.

“I actually have a mild case of vertigo, mostly towards other people but occasionally towards myself”

“We were both there for the log incident Mercyan”

“Oh, right”

“And I guess the low self-esteem doesn’t count either”

“Only if mine doesn’t”

“I can agree to that”

They kept going like this until it was brighter and Mercyan jumped down from the car to wake up Marianne again and prepare everything to leave, Nicodemus helped with the last bit, keeping an eye out for any attackers, luckily they were on a rather open area.

A few minutes later Mercyan came back out of the tent with a sleepy Marianne, an arm gently guiding her forwards and making sure she wouldn’t stumble, he was talking to her in a very soft voice, in what sounded like a combination of Spanish and French, Marianne seemed to understand it though, because she nodded every once in a while, Mercyan finally left her near the dead fireplace, Nicodemus gave her some water to help her wake up and received an appreciative smile in return.

“I’ll handle the tent”

Marianne stopped drinking to give him an affirmative nod, Nicodemus went back to the car, getting on top once again and watching the area as Mercyan dismantled their tent, eventually a tapping in the metal grabbed his attention, and there Mercyan stood all geared up to go, a bit further down Marianne was putting the last things in the bag.

“Giddy up starlight”

Nicodemus let out an exaggerated groan.

“You’re the worst”

Mercyan raised both his eyebrows, taking a step back as he put a hand on his chest and leaned forward.

“I’m charming”

It was ridiculous, Nicodemus wanted to kiss him, he did not voice either thought out loud, Marianne still lifted her head to lock eyes with him and smirk, he was really glad for the tan he had gained because he was pretty sure he was blushing.


	25. Oyente

Lysander wasn't one to believe in fate, generally, but given the nature of the situation they were in, they couldn't help but wonder, if in another time, even in another universe, the six of them would have somehow winded up meeting each other, and how different their meeting would've been, they would work different than now, particularly if the specific universe lacked a threat that they had to fight against; if they did meet each other in the supposed reality, Lysander could see team stalactite gravitating towards each other anyway, they liked to think team krypton would as well, given enough time, though they were convinced that in some twist of fate Morena and Mercyan would wind up meeting each other after having meet everyone else, the thought was both funny and fitting in so many ways. Would feelings stay unchanged, even through time and space, if the souls were the same? Maybe they should ask Morena, she seemed like the kind of person who would have a good answer for that sort of question. If it was the case, that feelings did repeat themselves on other lives, then they wondered if maybe, having met earlier, two certain duos would be already together, and whether Lysander themself would be able to find their own special someone. Alistair had been a surprise, really, they hadn't been expecting to form that sort of connection with anyone, it was nice, gave Lysander more of a reason to get back to the base in one piece, if only to see the American again; and as the Greek laid eyes on the other two members of team krypton, they knew that it wasn't just hopeful thinking, they really did have a chance of getting back safe, Lysander allowed themself to smile a little.

 

The road they took seemed to be barren for kilometers, the empty space served as reassurance; they could see anything coming their way with enough time to make a plan, this didn’t help Louis much, he felt tension in the air, ever since Morena pointed at the signs of them not being along, signs he should have noticed, they had to be more careful where they set camp. Lysander had managed to get back to their usually good mood, which was probably good seeing that Louis wasn’t the only one on high alert, the French could admit he was terrible when it came to comforting others, so he was glad Morena would have someone to talk to, if worse came to worse.

The road spread in front of them, if Louis turned around, he wouldn’t be able to see even the silhouette of the city they had abandoned but he could still see anything coming for miles, and it should have been enough to make him a bit more calm, but it wasn’t, because he hadn’t seen the signs, and he felt like he had failed his team, the three of them were quiet but Louis wished they weren’t, so his mind could be occupied with anything else.

 

Morena was perhaps, not the best at the physical parts of their training, nor did she have the senses for battle, she had learned how to hold herself and how to swing a sword, and then she had to learn how to hold a knife, the knife was easier to work with, somehow familiar, and there’s probably an explanation but she ignores it. However, she could tell when a situation was dire, when things got out of hand, and she could tell when others were affected by said situations; so as she glanced from Louis to Lysander she had a good idea of what they were thinking, Lysander looked sure and hopeful, it would be unwise to break their mood, the team would need it, Louis on the other hand…

Morena was worried about him, she had only seen him broad a couple times, most of those ended with Mercyan grinning as he avoided blows from a very irked French, but Morena wasn’t Mercyan, she couldn’t entice Louis into a fight by wiggling her eyebrows in unison, and she didn’t have the sort of calming aura Lysander possessed when they were talking the French out of his slump; and since Morena wasn’t either of them, she couldn’t do as they did, she had to find her own way of dealing with a negative Louis, she couldn’t fight him nor calm him, but she could listen, and she could tell he needed to talk, the issue would be pulling him aside without worrying Lysander, when they finally stopped again and settled the watch schedule she decided to take her chance.

 

It was late, Lysander had gone to sleep, Louis had the first shift, Morena had the last so she could afford to stay up longer, she approached him slowly but reasoning that the French probably knew what she was doing, he stayed put even when she sat down at his side looking at the extension of land ahead of them, it was quiet with the exception of the normal noises of night, she hugged her knees.

“If there’s something bothering you, you can tell me, you know?”

He sighed, head bending downwards just a bit, like the weight bothered him.

“It’s not the first time I see them; the aliens I mean”

Morena nodded to show she was listening even though he had yet to turn to her.

“Did you know my father died?”

He turned then, she gave a more solemn nod.

“After he helped me out, I kept track of him, I hope you don’t mind”

Louis shook his head no; he had expected that, Morena felt a little better about it.

“He was protecting us, my mom and me”

He looked away again, at something in the distance, or maybe just needed to focus on something else.

“When we saw the pictures on the abandoned base… I couldn’t help but remember”

Morena felt compelled to reach out to him, to show she was there for him, so she placed a hand gently on his shoulder, catching his attention, and smiled at him sweetly, trying to convey the things she couldn’t put to words.

Louis laughed breathily; Morena stared at him in confusion.

"Sorry, it’s just... I was thinking of how to comfort you after this morning, but you ended up comforting me instead" 

Morena laughed then, it was silly.

They stayed sitting in silence for a few more minutes before Morena felt like she was falling asleep and headed into the tent after waving to Louis sleepily, not missing the soft smile the other gave her in return; she felt happy.

 

The next morning found them all, as well rested as they allowed themselves to be, walking in complete silence, this one was lighter but still alert, better than the previous day, even their surroundings looked a bit brighter, it was getting colder but they were getting closer to their goal, it was amazing really what one could do with just a little bit of information and a team leader capable of convincing the other five members of their team that trying what looked in every way like merely a theory, was a reasonable course of action; Morena had no idea how Mercyan had done it, and she had the feeling that she did not want to know any time soon.


	26. Door #1

There was a silent moment, as they reach a tall and very military building, where Mercyan stands completely still, looking at something inside.

"Mercyan?" 

And of course Nicodemus was the one to bring him back.

"They're inside" 

The other two stand alert, drawing their weapons.

“How are we going to get in?”

“First we need to know how many there are”

“We could check out the rooms from outside while at it”

“Sounds like a plan”

They move like clockwork, hunching down close to the wall and listening for movement before looking through the window. Mercyan makes a particular motion with his hand, Marianne nods and Nicodemus is left with no choice but to copy the French girl, because he didn’t get the memo on hand gestures and what they mean, he follows after the young woman as she crawls after Mercyan to the next window, then stays still with her as the Argentinean moves quickly to look through said window, only to come back in a rush.

Nicodemus wasn’t sure how he expected for reality to get back to them, but the words that left Mercyan’s mouth were probably not it.

“They have stings”

 

Marianne reasoned that adding poison to the equation would change the end result, but she had her experience with numbers, and knew that this particular problem would have to be solved through a different method, she peeked through the window and analyzed the situation, turning to look at Mercyan, and wondering for a moment what the other saw in her right then.

“So, what now?”

For a moment he’s quiet but then his lips pull into a straight line and his eyes become alight with something, she can almost see the wheels spinning on his mind, and maybe this is why all of them silently decided to follow after this ridiculous Argentinean, he looks at the building again, something glimmering in his eyes.

“Depends, are you afraid of small places?”

“I can always learn to be”

“Perfect, we’re going in through the vents”

“This isn’t a spy movie Mercyan”

“The other option involves me asking if you were any good at jump the rope”

“I sucked at jump the rope”

“It’s a very hard game”

“You jump buildings!”

“Hush starlight, you’ll give away our position”

“Fine, we’ll use the vents”

“Cool, there’s an exit vent right on top of us, think you could reach it if I lever you?”

“I’m pretty sure you mistranslated something there”

Mercyan gets on one knee and connects his hands together in front of him before giving the Greek a pair of arched eyebrows and straight lips.

“You’re serious about this. I know you say you can lift Aoife, but…”

“Just step into his hand Nicodemus”

Nicodemus flinches but does as told; Mercyan lifts him up like he weights nothing, stopping only to keep balanced, the Greek has to hold onto the wall to look downwards, the Argentinean gives him a smirk and Nicodemus decisively looks to the vent he has to climb through, it thankfully has nothing covering it, he crawls inside.

“You’re next Mar”

“I’m shorter than Nicodemus though”

“Which is why you’re standing on my shoulders, ready?”

“Jesus Christ, how strong are you?”

“Lizard going your way starlight!”

Nicodemus can only turn his head to watch as Mar appears in the opening of the vents, he advances so she’ll fit through

“That was amazing!”

“Move forward, I’m coming up”

There’s a moment of silence before Mercyan appears though the opening and crawls through

“You never answered my question”

“Eh, at least strong enough to lift my entire weight on a few fingers from any kind of ledge”

“Can we get back to the plan?”

“Ok, the second right exit and then we’re down; you’re leading”

“Yes sir”

Nicodemus starts moving before either of the other two can answer and misses the knowing look from Marianne and the one of bewildered amusement from Mercyan, not that he could really see the latter in the dim lighting. The Greek followed instruction and didn’t question how they had gotten into an entirely empty room, he had to concentrate now; when they were at the abandoned base they discovered two maps of facilities with coordinates, which had resulted in Louis sitting in the broken street with a compass at his side and a pencil he found somewhere in his hand for hours until Morena reminded him that compasses don’t point north and that at the hour, sunset, the thing was pointing south, Nicodemus had stayed out of the discussion, now he held the hand for the building they were looking for in hand, written on it were the words ‘southeast’ in Morena’s surprisingly neat handwriting,  and a circle they hadn’t drawn, if there was anything there that could help them then it was worth the risk, if they had the chance to maybe give an end to this sick project then they would take it. Nicodemus started leading his two team mates, nose deep on the map, with Mercyan and Marianne providing helpful warnings so he wouldn’t collide with a wall, any other time it would’ve been ridiculous, but right now there were other matters pressing their minds.

 

They walk quietly, Mercyan pulls Nicodemus back every once in a while to hide from passing aliens; the Greek is solely focused on the map in front of him, the Argentinean focuses on keeping him from stumbling into the scorpion-like aliens, while Marianne made sure both of them avoided corners and other objects that were there for them to fall on, such as a broken down door on one case, Mercyan reasoned that they probably looked rather foolish but he couldn’t make himself laugh. The air felt heavy with something that wasn’t heat but couldn’t be cold, and somehow it felt like everything was coming to an end, the Argentinean didn’t like the feeling, there was still so much left unsolved, so many words left to say, they were thousands of miles away from the base, they were so far away from safety, they still had to meet up with team Krypton, it couldn’t end here, he refused to let it end here… with another turn to the right Nicodemus put the map down, the only door still standing they seen stood before them.

“This is it”


	27. Door #2

Finding the building they had been heading to wasn’t all that hard, as it stood in the middle of nowhere, the three members of team Krypton share glances, Louis leads the march on the few final steps towards the building in silence, the stop close to a broken window, with a gap wide enough for all of them to slide through, they check the room for any movement and go inside when they detect none, as soon as all three of them are inside the room their weapons are pulled out, better safe than sorry. Louis glances at Morena, map in one hand and machete in the other, then to Lysander, who rearranges their grip every once in a while. The atmosphere is tense, like a string pulled too tight, like they're about to stumble into a trap, and Louis knows even without seeing that the building is crawling with aliens, if he allows himself to stop and listen he can hear the clicking of their feet along the tiled floor of the base, there are cracks in the walls and moss climbing up, the roof looks about ready to give in. There's a pause, as team Krypton gathers themselves around the only door, a worn piece of wood that's barely hanging from its frame, to decide their next move, Louis frowns and pushed the door, it collapses onto the next floor, a few critters scram away, nothing big, the door lifts a cloud of dust when it falls, somehow this base seems far older than the one they had come from, everything is eerily quiet, enough so that Louis is conscious about how fast his teammates are breathing.

The halls are dim light even with the windows and gashes that let sunlight seep through, they walk slowly as to not trip or make much noise, if they can avoid confrontation all the better, they come extremely close on one occasion and discover a new threat in their enemy, but they can’t panic, they can’t make noise, they can only keep pushing forwards, sticking to the shadows so they won’t be seen, in their silence it’s impossible not to hear the clicking of bug-like feet, the aliens are separated from them by a wall that has seen better days, darkened by humidity and looking about ready to collapse, they don’t stop, not until they find the one room that seems to have been left unscathed by time, the door is metallic and their enemy seems to have been avoiding it like the plague, it takes a bit of wit to open, and Louis has to remember to ask Morena why she knows how to pick locks but not right now.

 

They enter a room filled with computers and far too many buttons; Morena feels the tension go down as soon as the metallic door is shut tight behind them, in a way the room is similar to the one in the first base, though far older in appearance, which makes little to no sense, why would they escape the treat by going further inside the land, where there’s a higher probability of danger? Unless, they weren’t trying to avoid them, seeking out the aliens to try and fight them now that they knew how to win, so, why hadn’t it worked, what was different about that group and this one?

If they were to be successful, would it matter what the difference was? But then again, if she was counted with those who lost someone to the project, she would want answers, something concrete, and she didn’t like to think it was all because of that prophesy about the ones with marks, as odd as those were, it wouldn’t cause a good reaction. So, she wanted to know, yet couldn’t find out, not now, not in this moment; a noise breaks her out of her pensive state.

Lysander has moved an unused metal table in front of the door and placed it as a barrier just in case, she let her eyes scan the terrain once again, paying more attention to the complex-looking machinery and wondering how they were going to pull this off, she could see team stalactite doing something like this, they had Marianne, she looked from Louis to Lysander for a moment before slowly, softly and rather awkwardly voicing her concerns.

“So, do either of you know how to work any of this?”

 

Lysander is quiet, they step closer to the machines and starts walking slowly while looking at them, the keys are unsurprisingly in a language they can’t read, but there’s one in particular that catches their attention, it’s far cleaner that the others and somehow seems to be made of something other than metal, the buttons are different as well, littered with something that looks closer to pictures than actual letters, it looks color coded as well, the screen above it is large and looks almost smooth, Lysander sees two buttons separated from the rest, one’s a weird almost lime color, the other is a tone away from lavender, they try the lime one first and nothing happens, they try the lavender one next and the screen lights up.

“We have electricity at the very least”

Louis is the first one to step besides them, light blue eyes scanning what Lysander assumes is the keyboard, he gives Lysander an arched eyebrow and the Greek has half the mind to make a joke about it but doesn’t.

“Do you understand anything this says?”

“I just, kind of deduced one of the separated keys would be the on switch”

“What now?”

The screen changes with an almost purring sound, all three stare at it as an image appears, on the other side there’s Marianne smiling like this is completely normal, Mercyan and Nicodemus are at her sides staring at the screen.

“Ly! Is yours alien too?”

“Alien? Mar… what?”

Mercyan snaps out first, he fumbles with his hands.

“So, this is mostly a theory but listen, I think these are the hive brains, even though scorpions don’t do those, but eh, aliens right?”

Louis follows.

“You’re not the best at explaining things Mer”

“So I’ve been told”

Morena blinks for a bit.

“He means to say that these control the aliens”

Mercyan point at her, or rather makes a finger gun in her direction.

“Kill the queen and the colony collapses”

Nicodemus seems to catch up right then.

“We’ve been playing with the keys a bit, made the aliens guarding this place explode”

Mercyan pats Marianne’s shoulder as if on cue, the French girl sits a bit straighter.

“Turns out the indigo button that looks like a chicken print is for exploding aliens, not sure why they would have such a thing, the aliens I mean”

“How did you contact us?”

“Oh, you see that one black button with what looks like a badly drawn duck?”

“I think”

“I just pressed that, I also tried the lime button that’s separated a few times, it vibrated one of the times but then stopped almost immediately, that was a little before I managed to contact you”

Lysander makes a face like they’re trying to make sense of a particularly frustrating puzzle before looking at both Morena and Louis.

“You don’t think…”

“You’ve got an idea Ly?”

“Maybe”

“We don’t have much to lose at this point, I say you go ahead”

“You’re the leader”

Mercyan looks genuinely confused.

“Since when?”

Louis rolls his eyes.

“Of course he didn’t know”

Marianne reached a hand and let it flop on the Argentinean’s shoulder without taking her eyes from the screen.

“It’s ok, that’s why we picked you”

“How long has this been a thing?”

Nicodemus turns to look at him with an amused smile.

“I don’t think it was ever a question”

Mercyan gasps quietly, hand to his chest.

“Et tut Starlight”

Louis puts both hands on his face and groans.

“We’re in the 22nd century Ghesh”

“Mar, just, could you keep the lime button on your side pressed?”

“Constantly?”

“Yes, I’d like to try something”

Marianne nods and makes an exaggerated movement towards her board, Lysander can’t see the panel on her side but they can guess she’s doing as asked, they press their lime button and feel as it starts vibrating and humming. Screeching can be heard from outside, then splashing as aliens explode, Marianne turns to Nicodemus.

“Could you press the four blue buttons on your side, first the one that has a weird e, then the one with the squiggly k, then the one that looks kind of like an eye, and, finally, the one that looks like a top hat”

The Greek nods and moves to do as told, four pictures appear in the screen, the colors are odd and hard to look at, Marianne squints her eyes.

“Mer, there should be a grey button somewhere”

“Got it”

Two of the pictures light up.

“Morena”

“There aren’t any grey keys on my side”

“Here!”

“The screen is inverted”

“Timing Ly”

“Sorry!”

The other two pictures light up as well; soon the images changed to an inverted black and white, Mercyan reacted first.

“These are pictures of around the world”

Pretty recent considering the pods were there, they could see the affected cities as well, see fields with people fighting against the aliens, they never showed this, never a single picture of the war against their intergalactic enemies, not even a warning to those who were losing family and friends on the field without knowing the truth.

Louis was the one to see it happen, see the way amber eyes darkened and a barely tanned hand reached for something unseen before two of the screens were filled with explosions, Marianne turned next, her face hardened but before she could say anything Mercyan raised his eyes to meet Louis on the screen and spoke.

“The white key”

It was a tone that didn’t leave room for argument; Louis nodded once and pressed the key.


	28. Séquelles

If anyone ever wrote down this particular moment, as they walked out of a building covered in red to black blood, Mercyan thought they would skim over the ghostly quiet that had fallen onto them. He leads team stalactite southwest, to meet team krypton in a middle point, they decided on the place they had spent the first night on, Mercyan had warned Louis that of the two teams, stalactite was closer to said spot, but that they would wait on them for however long it took them, Louis had straightened, going almost to a saluting position when he promised to try and get there as fast as they could, Morena and Lysander had nodded along.

Nicodemus said they had at least four days of traveling ahead of them, worried about their provisions, Mercyan told Marianne to ration food and water, they would be going back soon, back to the safety of the underground base, and the Argentinean almost missed the smell of air that’s stagnant with the pressure of gravity, miss the fake and way too white lightning in the halls, and dim but warm one on the bedrooms, miss the early mornings finding somewhere  high to perch on until he feels real enough to face the world, he doesn’t get to do that here, and as much as he enjoys the company he has he misses being able to zoon off with no repercussions until he stops seeing fading images through closed eyelids, it’s something he will have to talk about at some point but after what happened in the control room he ignores if he still has the right, he leads the other two regardless and will keep an eye on them, and the others once they reunite, until he knows them safe, he wonders for a moment if Louis is fairing any better, and if he’s forgiven Mercyan for using the French’s nature to his favor, he’s stopped making guesses when it comes to this particular set of individuals.

 

Louis Bellot can now say without a hint of hesitation that there’s nothing quite a jarring as complete and utter silence where there once was so much sound, the road stretches ahead, but even as silence remains he can’t bring himself to regret the decision, it wasn’t just instinct, though he was sure Mercyan would claim that if confronted, because the Argentinean had a knack for putting the blame on himself, Louis knew, knew the other was thinking himself selfish for playing him. The French knew, however, that the decision was less about a soldier following a non-verbal order, and much more about Louis following the request of the person he had come to consider his friend.

There wasn’t much to say on his part, he got glances from Lysander and knew there would definitely be a discussion once the six of them were together once more, or maybe even wait until they were safe, probably the later so Lysander could yell at the two in peace. Morena, on the other hand, is distant and quiet, seemingly unfazed with the ordeal, but Louis knows better, he recognizes the posture and sharp eyes from experience and knows that Morena hasn’t decided whether she’s relived it’s over, or angry at how it ended , there’s also a sense of loss that the French silently shares with her, they both had their reasons to hate the aliens and now that those were out of the picture there was a feeling of odd emptiness behind, Louis had only lost one person to the war, Morena had lost two and was left for death by what little she had left of a family, she had the right to be relieved just as she had the right to be angry at Mercyan and him.

So instead of putting in a word to break off what feels like the heaviest silence yet, he just keeps his eyes on the road ahead, and keeps himself moving forward, it’ll be a long walk.

 

It boils down to Mercyan shifting more than usually and Louis keeping his mouth almost permanently shut once they finally, finally, are together again, it occurs to them that they have, mostly unconsciously, separated themselves from the other four people in their team, Mercyan is sitting atop a boulder they found and Louis is standing under a tree that’s close by, enough so that when the Argentinean finally bursts and turns to him he doesn’t have to talk all that loud for the French to hear him.

“You don’t have to exclude yourself from the group Bellot”

It’s meant to sound harsh but Mercyan’s voice betrays him, a little too much accent that Louis knows comes from him being distressed, and his eyes lack the sharp edge he knows they take when the other is actually mad.

“I’m just as faulty as you, and you won’t convince me otherwise”

Mercyan lets out a bitter sounding word in Argentinean and Louis doesn’t need to know the language to realize it’s a swear, he scoffs and Mercyan sighs.

“I’m not usually that rash, really”

“I’m aware”

“And you aren’t generally this calm”

“You would know; you take most of the punches I throw”

“I figured someone had to, and I knew I could wear you down”

Louis nods in agreement; he knows that was the point, it worked wonders to be honest.

“I’m sorry”

“It was my choice Ghesh, if anything you should be apologizing to the rest, you probably scared them back there”

“Can I?”

If it were anyone else Louis would’ve scoffed and told them what an idiotic question it was, and though he still very well could do so, this one hung heavy with a meaning lost to the language it was spoken in, it was one of those rare moments in which Louis remembered that the Argentinean didn’t actually speak English as a first language.

“How about this, if you don’t I’ll hit you with the handle of my sword”

A smile tugs at Mercyan’s lips as he looks at Louis like he can’t quite believe him real and the French can appreciate the reversal in roles.

“Fair enough”

He jumps off the boulder and walks towards camp with the step of someone who has a mission while still shifting nervously and Louis rolls his eyes at him before following suit.

 

It ends the moment they both step into camp and the other four people in the team are sitting around the campfire, they all look up at them as if on cue, Mercyan moves a hand to the back of his head, Morena raises her hand, arm completely stretched and he falters before nodding once.

“You did what you had to do, we’ve decided”

She lowers the hand slowly, not done talking but tired.

“It was, a bit of a shock, but we all think it was the right call, we follow you”

Louis notices the way Mercyan’s just standing there, mouth slightly ajar and pushes him forward, making him actually stumble, he smiles when he gets a glare from the amber eyes.

“I still would like to apologize for dragging you to that mess”

Nicodemus crosses his arms, Mercyan changes his posture in a single movement, from tense to sheepish, and an apologetic smile paint his face.

“Ok”

Louis rolls his eyes at them before slowly going to sit in the free spot between Morena and Lysander, the Greek still looks like they’re ready to send someone to their bedroom, Louis would know. There’s an exchange of looks between all three members of tam stalactite before Marianne simply smiles, shuffles a bit closer to Lysander, and pats the now wider space between Nicodemus and herself, Mercyan makes a breathy sound between a sigh and a huff before walking to the spot and heavily dropping in, he groans.

“Bad idea”

And just like that whatever tension was left dissolves into laughter as all six of them finally allow themselves to be relieved that they’re together, and that they’re alive. Tomorrow would bring the walk back to where their ship should be, back to a military base and to confronting the consequences of their actions, but tonight, tonight they can laugh and joke, and exchange stories around the fire; they still decide on a look out just to be sure, but everyone looks far more at ease than any other night, and that’s good enough.


	29. Quid pro quo

The boat is still there when they get to the beach, surrounded by a group of uniformed people, the boat looks dusty but otherwise unchanged, they didn’t recognize the uniforms the people were wearing but they looked to be of the military sort, Louis is the one to tell Mercyan they’re military, the Argentinean nods without a word. Before they can properly approach the group they see, and hear, a pair of helicopters coming down, the Argentinean smiles.

“They’re sending falcons after a magpie”

Louis turns to him with a very done expression; Mercyan doesn’t take his eyes off the scene, simply waving a hand in his direction.

“Oh hush, you’re laughing inside”

The helicopters land noisily on the ground and from one of them comes a raging Captain Shean, the woman looks at the perimeter, eyes somehow zeroing on them even from this distance, they walk the rest of the trek to the beach in a similar manner to how they walked in, postures straight, the only difference this time is that Mercyan’s leading the march, instead of hanging back to keep an eye out for everyone, he manages to have a guarded posture while still standing perfectly straight once they finally come at talking distance to the American woman.

“The General wants a word with all six of you regarding your recent actions”

“We’d like a few words with them as well”

“Louis, back down”

The French does as told with a solid nod, Mercyan has an almost conciliatory expression but his eyes are alight with something dark, whatever it is seems to be ignored by Noemi.

“Ma’am, team dry ice responds to me, I’m the only one at fault”

“That’s not for you to decide Ghesh, get them on the chopper”

“Yes ma’am”

Mercyan turns to the other five on the group crossing his arms behind his back, guilt glinting on his eyes, they all nod at him and direct themselves to the other soldiers that help them board, they’re going to be separated again it seems; Louis looks at the Argentinean from where he’s with the rest of team krypton, Mercyan closes his eyes and gives Louis a single nod, the soldiers rush them to the two helicopters, the metal doors closing separating the teams once again.

 

The flight is spent actually sleeping, Iran is glaring at anyone who tries to even protest against the trainees on his helicopter, on the other the roll of protective head soldier falls on Aoife, who doesn’t actually glare, she just sits at the right side of all three sleeping members of team stalactite, Rhamnee at the left with the three laying atop each other on the center; one of the soldiers had opened their mouth to say something, received a sharp look from the Irish woman and no one tried again. When they get back to the main base captain Shean guided them, in the much more rested state to a part of the installment that they hadn’t been to before, much deeper down than they usually went, specifically to an office with a cobalt tag nailed to the wooden-looking door that read ‘General Joseph Grunt’.

The room is, jarringly, a completely normal office, with a few medals and pictures here and there, the one world globe on the neatly arranged desk, behind it, on a black chair, sat a stern looking man, he wasn’t tall but he was definitely not short, he was wide in all senses and with a strong enough presence to cause a reaction out of the six trainees, who all straightened as if on instinct; the man had short black hair, dark brown eyes, and deep expression marks cutting at his copper skin, he clasps his hands together under his round chin.

“Team dry ice if I’m correct”

“Yes sir”

“Though you did just win us the war, you still went against your orders, how would you respond for your actions?”

Lysander takes a step out of the line they unconsciously had formed, expression measured, hands coming together and intertwining.

“I would like to propose a… quid pro quo, I think is the wording”

They give Mercyan a pointed look; the Argentinean gets a spark on his eyes.

“That would be it, yes”

“And what is your offer for me forgiving your disobedience”

Lysander gets a look on their eyes that’s lingering on malice, though the others know the Greek well enough to see it for the act it is, and a smirk forms on their lips.

“Our secrecy”

 

Alistair Southland was an understanding man, a bit of a goof for someone who had spent that much time on the military, a bit of a mess around the person he found himself caring most about, and, as of right now, a very worried man. The twins weren’t any better, but they also were of absolutely no help, having isolated themselves to a corner to worry alone, and though Alistair respected Aoife a lot, the Irish woman was a little scary when worried, it had become a group thing the moment Noemi; captain Shean, Alistair had been serving with the woman for a while and tended to slip every so often; had made the turn for the lower levels of the base.

In all honesty, and amongst everything Alistair prided himself the most on his honesty, waiting for the veridic on the sextet sucks; the American doesn’t want to diminish his companions’ feelings but he gets the sensation that out of all of them he’s the one with most to lose, and that scares him, because he cares a whole deal and it’d be a downer if Ly and the others didn’t get the recognition they deserved for, I don’t know, saving the world!

When the entirety of team dry ice, it was a ridiculous name, appeared from the access to the staircase, he practically sprung to his feet and managed, by some sort of miracle, to not run towards them. There was a commotion from the other soldiers on the room, and Alistair had all but forgotten their presence there, as they muttered about the legend being true, the American didn’t miss the way the six trainees flinched slightly, though he was sure the others did, captain Shean cleared her throat.

“The leaders of the world have decided to invite the six of you to a congratulatory party, so to speak”

Mercyan smiled at the woman with a hint of something sharp.

“I’m always looking for an excuse to wear fancy clothes”

The others smile at the comment; Lysander glances at him and grins beautifully before heading his way, Alistair beams at them, trying to hide the nerves that are curling up on his hands and feet.

“I got us out of it”

And Alistair lets go of a breath he didn’t realize he was holding before he smiles at this wonderful person.

“Of course you did”

 

“If I agree, you won’t be able to talk about what you saw and know to anyone, you’ll give up the truth”

Lysander looks back to the other five people in the room, they think on everything they had been through with these five, and they know this won’t ease their nights but it’ll keep them breathing a few more.

“Better the truth than our lives”


	30. ¿Bailamos?

It was weird, to go to a party after spending five months surviving on barren land, it was weird in a way that caused all six of them to do double takes when they found themselves dressing up, like a white pebble on a stone road; it was very like them to adapt to the situation as best as they could.

“I mean”

And here Mercyan brushed his hair back with a hand that had regained color out there.

“This is a completely different kind of survival”

“I don’t want to hear that from you mister I charmed a whole military settlement in twenty minutes”

Louis has his arms crossed and Mercyan smiles sheepishly at him.

“Fair enough”

 

Marian wore a solid red dress with semi-transparent sleeves, a flower pattern circling around her arms, it made for an interesting contrast against her dark skin, the dress opened slightly at the waist were it felt softly to a little beneath her knees, good for movement, it fit her nicely, her short hair was left natural. Morena had gone for a much looser soft orange dress that tied on the neck and left her back bare, it was long enough to cover her shoes, and gave her eyes a reddish tone, her hair was loose for once, as she preferred to braid it, and curled downward to her shoulders, marking her face very well. Lysander went for a female-cut solid white two-piece suit; that made them look taller than they really were, the hair was decorated with two small braids that dissolved into the usual ponytail they wore. Mercyan wore, much to the amusement of everyone else, a three-piece suit that consisted on a gold jacket with black lines, a solid black vest, and a solid black pair of dress pants; the bowtie, because of course he wore one, was golden like the vest and the shoes where black with golden tips. Nicodemus also opted for a three piece, though his was tamer, it dealt on a gamma of grays that brought out his eyes nicely, tie and shoes a solid black. Finally, Louis, went for a French blue two-piece suit, with white tie and shoes, it made his sky blue eyes stand out more and hugged his figure very well.

Louis had arched an eyebrow at Mercyan; the Argentinean had wiggled his in perfect synchrony, and then both had laughed at the exchange, it was a good scene. Louis had actually stuttered when complimenting Morena, who wasn’t able to hold back the little chuckle that it caused her, but was practically beaming at the French, who obviously did not do well with the attention, if the color of his cheeks was anything to go by.

Marianne, Lysander and Mercyan had grouped together and were talking in hushed voices and conspiring grins, Nicodemus decided to not take part in whatever it was they were planning.

 

The building where the party was to be held looked like a castle, a simplified version with its own charm, and every bit Argentinean, a fact that’s proven correct when Mercyan sits up in their pod, Morena straightens too, and the two are glancing at each other with a hint of recognition in their eyes. The room itself is spacious and circular, there are a few people dressed formally walking around while a band is preparing in a corner, there’s a snack table where people in presidential regalia are chatting amicably, or so it seems, it’s always hard to tell with politics. They’re received politely but with practiced protocol; the Argentinean leader has this glint on their eyes like they remember Morena and Mercyan but doesn’t say anything to them to prove this theory correct, maybe it’s an Argentinean thing; the adult has a difficult to describe voice.

“There will be a representative song played, if you two feel like joining”

Mercyan gives back a tight stringed smiled, though his posture speaks of calm.

“I see no problem, Morena?”

Morena looks just slightly weary.

“Sounds fun”

 

The song is fast paced and, to put it in words, happy; it makes Mercyan chuckle as he leans towards Morena with a smile.

"I thought I was the only one into old things"

The older Argentinean giggles, looking far less tense than before, she has a small smile as she allows Mercyan to guide her to the clearing dance floor. The dance itself is lively, and consists of the two circling each other, separating to dance on their own, and coming together, before they repeat, there are a few people that join them and it becomes clear that the dance is supposed to be done in a group, the two Argentineans seem to be having fun. When the song ends Mercyan leans to Morena to say something that makes her laugh, they separate with almost matching grins, Morena walks towards the group while Mercyan makes his way to the snack table, Louis walks to her when she gets closer.

"I uh... could I have this dance?"

Morena looks surprised but manages to smile.

"Sure"

A few ways away, Nicodemus leans towards Marianne conspicuously while looking at the two.

"Finally"

Marianne agrees loudly before sighing.

"One duo down, one more to go"

A waiter passes with glasses of champagne; Nicodemus takes one before making a toasting motion to Marianne.

"Liquid bravery"

He chugs the glass down and gives it to her, then he strides away with purpose, Marianne laughs.

"Good luck!"

Lysander approaches her

"I didn't know he drunk"

"Shouldn't you be flirting with that American soldier of yours?"

"Alistair is busy with the twins"

Nicodemus reaches Mercyan on the dance floor; from this far they can't hear them.

"Besides, I wouldn't want to miss that"

They make a slight motion towards Mercyan and Nicodemus with their hand, Marianne smiles.

"Oui; that would be a shame"

 

Nicodemus reaches Mercyan and almost backs out, but the Argentinean turns to him and the Greek finds the courage to make the last few steps.

"Hello starlight"

Nicodemus swallows and bows.

"Could I have this dance?"

Mercyan smiles softly.

"Of course"

Nicodemus offers a hand, palm up, and thinks that he must've done something right by the way Mercyan beams as he takes it and positions himself. Mercyan moves almost expertly, Nicodemus knew the Argentinean would be a good dancer, he leans a bit closer and whispers.

"I actually don't know what I'm doing"

Mercyan laughs quietly against him before leaning away with a charming smile.

"Do you trust me?"

There's a glint in the amber eyes that Nicodemus knows well, he smiles back.

"Of course"

"Then follow me"

And with that he starts leading him into a slow circle, it only takes a few moments before Nicodemus gets the hang of it and Mercyan laughs happily.

"Aren't you a fast learner?"

Nicodemus spins him in retaliation, the Argentinean lets him in a fit of laughter and the Greek can't help but laugh along, Mercyan spins him a few times, they probably look ridiculous, then they stop, Mercyan reaches out to him and Nicodemus can feel his pulse on his ears.

"Sorry"

He almost doesn't hear him over his own heartbeat, but before he can ask why the other is apologizing he feels lips against his own and he knows, he's quick to respond because he knows, knows that Mercyan will run away if he doesn't and Nicodemus can't have that, so he keeps the other put and doesn't miss the smile it gets him, he's pretty sure he hears Marianne whooping, someone throws something at them and they pull apart, when Nicodemus looks back he meets with Mercyan's eyes and they both laugh. The rest of the night is spent dancing and laughing together, it’s a harsh contrast with what they’ve been through, but it’s good, and they feel relaxed in a way they hadn’t up to now, they try not to think about it, but they’re smiling and that’s enough.


	31. Οικογένεια

Captain Noemi Shean approaches them the next day with the news that they’ll get a reunion with their families in a building provided by the military, they take it for what it is; a test of resolve, to see how long they’ll last without telling the truth. It would be much more intimidating if they weren’t all worried about a much more pressing matter; the fact that two out of the six of them have less than desirable family situations, though Morena doesn’t think hers will show up at all, she sounds very convinced, but that still leaves Marianne’s family.

Mercyan and Nicodemus had all but glued themselves to her sides, like faithful guards, the Greek was quiet about it, offering a listening ear, the Argentinean was more physical, holding her hands like they were made of glass and whispering in a combination of English and French, sometimes Marianne would lean onto him and he would hum an unrecognizable tune under his breath; Marianne herself has decided to stay put between them, shielding herself, and it’s a hard blow to remember how young she is compared to them.

Then, the day finally comes, and they’re in a modest looking building filled with familiar faces; Marianne turns to Mercyan with a small, almost fearful, smile.

“Is your offer still standing, if all else fails?”

He smiles at her softly.

“You don’t even have to ask”

To make matters easier they decide to meet the families as a team, it’s not something odd; they start with Lysander’s, and it takes a lot of effort to not slip into calling them by their preferred pronouns in front of them. Nicodemus is next; his family is smaller than Lysander’s, though still pretty big, he slips into Greek with them and at one point it sounds like he’s being teased, Lysander gives Mercyan a pointed look, and the Argentinean is thankful for not understanding what’s being said, he didn’t want to know. Louis’ family was much smaller, his mom had a heavily accented English when thanking them for keeping her boy alive, Louis had smiled sweetly at her, it was a nice scene. As expected, there was no one waiting for Morena, leaving Mercyan and Marianne, they approached the French family first.

The interaction was tense, to say the least, there were only two people there, a man and a woman, the woman looked stern, the man looked shifty, the woman seemed to be angry, the man looked away; it took four words, said with a roll of letters but enough enunciation for all of them to understand her, it wasn’t a slip.

“You made a mistake”

The next thing being said was in what sounded like a joke, with practiced purred letters, a tug of the lips upwards, and in French by an Argentinean with darkened and sharp amber eyes, the woman looked like she had just been personally offended but Mercyan was pulling Marianne away without stopping to look back, as all four of them followed after, Louis refused to translate, it was probably for the best.

The Ghesh family was somewhere between Louis’ and Nicodemus’ on size, there was Nerean with two people who were probably her parents, and then there was Mercyan’s dad, the man was tall, probably where Mercyan got it from, but besides some minor details the two didn’t much resemble each other, the younger Argentinean probably looked more like his mother, yet somehow it was easy to tell they were father and son the moment the man smiled at them, it was in how he positioned himself to talk with them, and it was in the effortless way he spoke English.

“I’m glad to see you in one piece”

Mercyan gave back a matching smile.

“Yes, well, I had five people watching my back”

The man opens his arms, Mercyan laughs and hugs him, when they let go Mercyan turns to Marianne.

“Pa, I need to talk with you about something”

Mercyan pulls the man away from them, they’re probably talking in Spanish; there are a lot of hand gestures from both, the man put a hand on Mercyan’s shoulders saying a few lines, Mercyan nodded, his dad seemed to deflate and smile before dropping the hand to his son’s back and pushing him back to them.

“I believe I have to meet one Marianne”

The French girl took a step forward.

“That would be me”

The man gave her a soft smile.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, I’m Jeremiah Ghesh”

Marianne offers a hand; the man laughs softly and shakes his head.

“No dear, we Argentineans greet each other with a kiss to the check, specially our families”

Marianne is positively beaming as she leans forward and does as told, Mercyan rolls his eyes but he’s smiling too.

 

Later, after separating and going to their respective families, Morena had been dragged by Lysander who preferred to have someone with them; the female Argentinean looked amused but had let it happen; and then coming back together looking like they had all gotten a heavy weight off their shoulders, they decided to go for a walk as a team, to talk about what they would do now that it was over, they told the twins and marched out of the building. They were but a few steps away from the building when they saw the figure, enough so to be out of sight, it all happened in a second.


	32. Balles

The figure was openly armed, gun shining under the sunlight, the actual danger of the situation came as second thought, because it had been so long since any of them had to worry about firearms, but here was this person, eyes like a death sentence, carrying one like they did their swords, a sense of heaviness to them, like they were on a mission.

He had seen them before, but where? They didn't give him much time to think, with a quick motion of the hand the bullet was flying, where had he seen that face before?

There was sound, he believed, voices he knew, muffled as if he were hearing them from below water, one just a bit clearer, starlight, he had never said what he wanted to, did he know? Stars, he hoped so.

He saw the sky for just a moment, he had always liked the sunset, stars appearing one by one, who were they? Where did he know them from?

There was a screen, a screen with names and pictures, of people who had lost loved ones to the MAST project, they were there, clear as day, and Mercyan could not blame them, didn't have any right to blame them.

Everything was so dark, he hoped starlight could forgive him, he hoped the shooter could find if a little peace, he hoped his father wouldn't cry, he hoped no one would care, he hoped he had been wrong about the afterlife, he hoped he would see them again, he hoped he could see him again, he hoped he had said that, it was such a simple thing, but he was glad, he was glad that out of everyone, it had been him.

 

There's a voice calling out for Mercyan's name desperately, it takes him a moment to recognize it as his own.

Mercyan hits the ground before he can reach him, when he does he can only see the amber eyes for a moment before they close and sound rushes back to him.

Louis has gone after the shooter, Morena and Lysander following suit without a word, Marianne is screaming through an intercom, Nicodemus holds Mercyan's hand like he's the one dying, and he feels the tears before they happen, he presses a kiss to the hand.

"I love you, please don't die"

For once he wishes for a witty comeback, a tired remark, any kind of response, but there's nothing. He feels exhausted as he's pulled away and Mercyan is carried into one of their vehicles, he thinks Aoife says something to him but he can't make it out, they take him quickly, he follows with Marianne in another car, she's muttering to herself in what's probably French, it takes him a minute to realize she's praying, Nicodemus has never been too religious, but if there is a higher being out there then he can only ask them to not take Mercyan, Greek is easier on his lips when he asks this, it's rushed and damp with tears, his voice barely above a whisper, shaking with a fear he has not felt in very long, Marianne is in a similar state when she finally looks at him.

"He'll be ok; he has to"

And Nicodemus can only nod.

 

They see Jeremiah Ghesh again that evening, in a hall with benches that in any other moment would have been extremely uncomfortable, the man speaks with the doctor first, voice heavy with worry, but when he turns to them he changes, a soft smile and open posture.

“He’ll survive, he’s a strong boy”

Then he puts his hands on his hips and a decided glint seems to overtake his eyes.

“Now, knowing my son, he won’t like seeing you with eye bags because of him, so you all better get some rest”

And he gets this tone that is definitely like Mercyan, and that’s probably where the Argentinean got it on the first place, that would be really hard to argue with normally, but this isn’t a normal situation. In a corner Morena is scribbling over a piece of paper, she’s not the best at drawing but she knows Mercyan will appreciate the gesture, it’s the very least she can do after everything that’s happened.


	33. Epilogue

The first thing Mercyan knows is a strong scent of disinfectant and reasons that he’s in a hospital, and he’s been to hospitals before so he’s pretty confident about the idea, the way too bright light he feels even through his eyelids is proof number two, the constant beeping sound of a monitor is proof number three, and at this point his body is giving him reason to be in a hospital bed, he slowly opens his eyes.

First, as his eyes get used to the lighting, he tries remembering what happened, he remembers being shot, his chest is bandaged so the bullet probably hit somewhere in that area. On the other hand, his head is pounding, and damn it hurts, and it takes him a moment to remember falling backwards, hitting his head in the process most likely, probably how he blacked out so quickly in the first place. Next to his bed was a small table with two open get-well-soon cards, or however one referred to such things in English; the first one is hand drawn and written, it depicts all six of them in a marching position, it’s very simple but Mercyan likes it all the better for it, it takes him a moment to recognize Morena’s handwriting; the second one is printed but he recognizes the paper and font in a beat, it brings a little comfort to know they let his father visit him.

It takes him a while, but finally the nurses agree to letting him go outside, to the patio of the hospital but he counts it as a win either way, they even let him get a pair of pants on, after all his legs are perfectly fine; it’s for the better, really, because otherwise he would have gone insane. He stands in the darkness, head facing upwards, as if trying to engrave the sight before him to his eyes, it had been so long, terribly so, and the sky was clear, the stars started appearing one by one, the soft light made it somewhat more visible, a smile paints his face, the summer breeze isn’t exactly a relief, but it beats the normal temperature, still, it was a beautiful night.

“Somehow, you being unable to stay put even when hurt is not surprising at all”

The voice is heavy in a way that pulls at his heartstrings, his smile widens.

“I was suffocating in disinfectant”

“I’m sure”

Nicodemus walks to his side, Mercyan hadn’t realized how tense he was until he feels himself calming down, it never occurred to him before, how in peace he was around the other.

“At least you’re well enough to move around, that’s good”

Mercyan lets himself turn to him; smile tugging at his lips, the Greek is looking upwards but turns to him as well, they remained like that, in a comfortable silence for about a minute, before Nicodemus looked away.

“Captain Shean told us we could go back to our lives now”

Mercyan huffed, directing his eyes at a bush in the area.

“That’s a novel idea, go back to everyday life after what we saw”

“I’m not really partial to it either, but they offered to put all of us in the same place”

At that the Argentinean sighed, something bittersweet on his expression.

“That’s a relief, I guess, at least we’ll have each other”

The Greek turned to him again.

“There’s something on your mind I can tell”

Mercyan felt a tug at his lips at the familiar words, he stayed put.

“It’s nothing; really, I’m just a bit, at a loss as to how to feel right now”

Nicodemus nodded, not that the other was looking.

“I don’t have the best experience when it comes to relationships”

At this he slowly turned his whole body to him, and Nicodemus felt his heart skip a few beats as he nodded to relay that he was listening.

“But I’m convinced you’re the best thing that’s come out of this whole ordeal, and if you’d let me, I’ll try my best to make you happy, because I’m definitely in love with you”

A smile danced on the Greeks lips “I love you too, really appreciate the re-do on the confession though”

“I… what?”

Nicodemus crossed his arms.

“Let’s see… ‘Because you’re constant and I like you’ I think were your words”

And any other time it would have bothered him, but Nicodemus had this look on his eyes like he found Mercyan adorable, it served him right he guessed, so he chuckled instead.

"You're ridiculous starlight"

Nicodemus gives him a beautiful smile.

"Well, I do spend a lot of time with you"

Mercyan smiles back happily, they're good.

The end.


End file.
